Appointments in Large Taxpayer Units (LTUs) and Medium Taxpayer Units (MTUs) on double pay, have caused unrest and disappointment in the field formations of Central Board of Revenue (CBR), as according to most of the senior officials of Income Tax Group, high-ups have accommodated their favourites in such establishments, ignoring merit.
"It is surprising and rather shocking that a number of officials whose performance was very poor in capacity building/training programmes conducted by CBR, were now in helm of affairs at LTUs and MTUs," a high official of Income Tax Group told Business Recorder on condition of anonymity. This has also shocked the professionally capable officers in the department, he added.
A survey conducted by this scribe revealed that over 90-percent officers of Income Tax Group were not happy over the appointments/recruitment made in LTUs and MTUs on double salary. According to them, these appointments were made in sheer violation of public service rules.
Meanwhile, according to knowledgeable sources CBR high-ups have realised this situation and the Board in Council (BIC) in its recent meeting decided to seek comments from the field formations regarding appointment/recruitment in LTUs and MTUs.
At present, a panel of three officers holds interviews for selection but unfortunately professional competence does not appear to be their top priority, a high official in CBR observed. Their emphasis is more on foreign degrees and fluency in spoken English. Further preference appears to have been given to female officers speaking English fluently but without possessing necessary professional competence and commitment to the job. This has resulted into recruitment of such officers in BS-17 to 19, majority of whom do not have sound professional base or reputation in the department.
"Due to this wrong selection, the present LTUs, MTUs and HRM are not delivering fruitful results and also creating a negative image of the department," another official observed.
Moreover, he added, creating islands of special pay is causing resentment in majority of the workforce of the department, who work more and many of them are much more competent and enjoying higher level of integrity but receiving single salary. Whereas, he maintained, the output of LTUs, MTUs and HRM, so far, are extremely disappointing and highly unprofessional.
According to some officials, the attitude of officers, posted on special pay, towards taxpayers and their other colleagues (not enjoying special pay) is quite rude and arrogant.
According them, it has become a joke in the department that those who work get single salary and those who do not, receive double pay. They said that the interview panel is some times not properly constituted. Citing an example, they claimed that the officer of Customs who is member of the interview team is usually junior to the officer of Income Tax Deportment who appears for interview, which is not only against merit but also against the norms of the government service.
They suggested that that if an interview team is to be constituted its members should invariably be senior to the officer who is being interviewed. Furthermore, 10 to 15 minutes interview by a selection board or committee does not make any sense, they added.
As far as selection of officers of BS-20 and 21 is concerned, high-ups at CBR know all the officers and should post them, keeping in view their profile, ACR quantification and their reputation of efficiency, competence and integrity. "The Director General LTU, Karachi and Director General, LTU, Lahore, were not found fit for promotion in Grade-21 by Central Selection Board but it is strange that they were posted in these key positions, which indicates dichotomy in selection criteria of two important agencies/bodies of the Government. This dichotomy should be looked into, they demanded.
They were of the view that special pay position in no case should be used to oblige some body because this would mean making a mockery of the Reform Process.
Sources claimed that some officers have been posted to higher positions in OPS against special pay posts, which is not a very happy situation. They added that nobody should be posted on a position which is higher than his actual grade and selection on special pay should invariably be made for a position strictly from amongst officers of that particular grade.
Opposing the idea of deputation of officers from other groups of CBR, an officer said: "We are not short of officers and rather promotion of officers of the Income Tax Department, as compared to other CSS Groups, is much slow these days. Secondly, our job is highly technical and only the officers of Income Tax Department are well versed and trained to perform the functions of assessment of income and levy as well as collection of tax." The experiments of outsourcing of audit cases and then hiring of members from private sector have been utter failure. The performance of neither of the members selected from private sector has been satisfactory in recent past, they observed.
They have been drawing salaries /benefits almost ten times more than a member of Grade-21 but their out put is zero. He suggested that neither any member, nor any officer should be brought on deputation to CBR from any other group for special pay position except officers coming on normal pay position according to usual horizontal mobility policy of the Federal Government. In fact, there should be no special pay position in a department, because that is creating discrimination amongst the workers of the same department, an official of Grade-18, who has been recently posted in field formations said.
Likewise, as the present pay structure of public employees is not sufficient even to meet a simple standard of living, what is to speak of a reasonable standard of living, the salaries of all the employees of Income Tax Department should be raised to the level of living wages instead of creating Islands of double salary and mainland of single salary, he remarked.
The only criteria, which should be strictly followed, is that the work force should be competent, efficient and honest, he further observed. Whosoever does not meet this standard should be dealt with under RSO-2000 and removed from service, he viewed.
"As far as selection of one or the other assignment is concerned, this is the prerogative of seniors who always know their juniors and post them to certain assignments keeping in view their suitability, as has been done so far." The mere interview by a selection committee does not make any sense at all, he opined.
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