ISLAMABAD – A senior Finance Ministry source said on Saturday that the PMorder over the issue of three months basic pay honorarium, as reflected inthe media, was the consequence of a misunderstanding and is likely to beclarified by the ECC. “There is no such approval for the payment ofhonorarium equivalent to three-month basic salaries to all the federalgovernment servants,” the source said.
The source explained that as against over a million federal governmentservants, this honorarium will be given to a few thousand governmentemployees belonging to different government departments for theirextraordinary work like how officials/officers of Finance Ministry, FBR andParliament are paid honoraria every year for their budget related work.
According to the official notification issued by Secretary to the PrimeMinister, Fawad Hassan Fawad, on Friday the PM/chairman of the ECC has seenand is pleased to order that all employees of the federal government shallbe given honorarium equivalent to three basic pays for the financial year2017-18.
Sources in the Finance Ministry, which had moved the summary on thesubject, said the PM’s office notification is defective as it conveys awrong message. The ministry said the summary never talked about any suchhonorarium for “all federal government servants”. The Finance Ministrysummary, these sources said, was concerning “Grant of special performanceincentive to the officers/officials of the federal government” and did nottalk of any proposal for any number of incentive pays for “all the federalgovernment servants”. The Finance Ministry’s summary was moved followingPM’s directions on a case regarding grant of special honorarium to theofficers/officials of the office of the Attorney General for Pakistan.
According to the summary: “This issue has been reviewed in FinanceDivision. As such, there is no reward regime for high performingindividuals in the federal government. However, a special dispensation isprescribed in the Rules…. Provide that special compensation can be givenfor work that is not included in normal duties and is occasional andintermittent in nature.”
The Finance Ministry explained that the present practice of grant ofhonoraria is based on the ECC decision under which honorarium to employeesup to BS-18 is given with the approval of principal accounting officer. Thecases of honorarium for employees in pay scale BS-19 and above are approvedby the ECC chairman, in relaxation of the policy.
The Finance Ministry in its summary proposed parameters for a new incentiveregime under which those performing well in the federal government could begiven honorarium on the basis of key performance indicators. The ministrysaid that the proposed new incentive policy will be finalised only afterconsultation with all stakeholders. The summary added since thefinalisation of the new incentive policy will take some time, it isproposed that the past practice of granting honoraria may be continued andthe Ministry of Finance may be delegated powers to approve the cases ofhonorarium for those recommended for 2017-18. The summary contained theannexure including names of officers recommended for the honorarium.
The PM’s office order, the Finance Ministry sources clarified, pertains tothose included in the list of officers annexed with the summary. It doesnot cover all the federal government employees.