Govt implements ‘Civil Services Rules 2020’ for retirement

ISLAMABAD: After approval from the prime minister, the government has implemented the ‘Civil Servants (Directory retirement from Service) Rules 2020’ in order to improve efficiency and performance of the civil service.

This allows for mandatory evaluation of every officer/ official of Grade 1-22 upon completion of 20 years of service. The assessment will be carried out by retirement boards and committees to allow objective scrutiny of officers’ performance.

The board for scrutiny of officers of Grade 20-22 is headed by Chairman Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) while Secretary Establishment, Secretary Cabinet, Secretary Finance, and Secretary Law are permanent members.

The committee for scrutiny of officers of Grade 17-19 of each Ministry is headed by the concerned Additional Secretary while the Joint Secretaries of Establishment Division, Finance Division and Law Division and the concerned head of department are members of the committee.

For the scrutiny of officials of Grade 16 and below of each ministry, the committee is headed by the Senior Joint Secretary or Joint Secretary while the representatives of Establishment Division, Finance Division and Law Division, not below Grade 19, and head of concerned department are members of the committee.

The criteria for retirement include average Performance Evaluation Reports (PERs) or remarks in three or more reports from three different officers, twice recommended for supersession by promotion boards, guilty of corruption or has entered into plea bargain or voluntary return with National Accountability Bureau (NAB), or has been placed on more than one occasion in category C by promotion boards.

The procedure for directory retirement is also clearly specified for mandatory review of all officers upon completion of 20 years of service.  The cases will be referred to the retirement boards and committees after which their decision will be followed.

A show-cause notice will be issued to the civil servant recommended for retirement and he/she will be provided an opportunity of personal hearing under ‘Civil Servants Appeal Rules 1977’.

After completing the prescribed procedure, if the competent authority is satisfied that further retention in service is not in public interest, officers/officials will be retired with pension and other retirement benefits.

There are 27,000 officers serving in the federal government while the officials in Grade 16 and below are approximately 550,000.

In order to implement the process of enhancing efficiency and performance of federal government, the first board meeting, scrutinisng 565 officers of Grade 20-22 from Pakistan Administrative Service, Police Service of Pakistan and Secretariat Group will be held by the end of July 2020.

The committees to scrutinise officers of Grade 17-19 and Grade 16 and below will start holding meetings from August 2020.