The government on Tuesday decided to depute under-secretaries from the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology to the local levels as Chief Administrative Officers.

It aims to end the shortage of civil staff in the local governments. This move revokes the government’s earlier stand.

Earlier, only those under administrative group got the position, though employees from Education Ministry were senior to them.Education Ministry under-secretaries were reluctant to accept positions at the local levels as this move deprived them of senior positions. They said it was humiliating to report to junior staff from administrative group.

As many as 76 under-secretaries from Education Ministry were deputed to local units; however, most of them refused the postings expressing their displeasure to report to junior officials. The 484 Education Ministry under-secretaries opposed the decision.

Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration (MoFGA) on Monday revoked its earlier decision and informed Education Ministry to deploy under-secretaries to 70 municipalities and rural municipalities where the posts of Chief Administrative Officer were vacant.

The Education Ministry has the highest number of officials who do not have posting after the District Education Offices (DEO) were closed. Currently an education desk, under District Coordination Committee does the job of the DEO’s which were led by under-secretaries. Now Class III Gazetted Officers lead the education desks in half of the offices.

The MoFGA believes the deployment process will ease with new provision. Lack of regulations for Civil Servants’ makes the current deployment to local and provincial levels temporary.