PESHAWAR:Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Caretaker Minister for Technical Education, Industries and Commerce Mohammad Adnan Jalil has directed for reducing the monthly unnecessary expenditures in Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (TEVTA) which would save around Rs. 4.2 million per month.
In view of the mentioned austerity measures, decided by the caretaker provincial minister, the initiative will benefit the government treasury with about Rs 50 million per annum savings.
This decision was taken at a high-level meeting on Tuesday regarding reform initiatives and rationalization in TEVTA, held under the chairmanship of the caretaker provincial minister and participated by all senior officers of the department.
During the meeting, it was decided that for the preparation of skilled manpower in the province, the technical education sector will be restructured according to the requirements of the present-day global market demands. It was also decided that TEVTA administrative structure would also be restructured as per the requirements, and a few sectors in the organogram would be merged for better service delivery and strengthening of training colleges, and institutions by the provision of additional staff. In this regard, final approval will be taken in the upcoming board meeting of TEVTA accordingly.
The caretaker provincial minister took an exemplary initiative by voluntarily reducing his 10 percent POL-authorized expenses as chairman of the TEVTA Board and also other officers of the institution decided to follow this decision accordingly.
It is worth mentioning that the same reduction will be an additional cut on authorized POL than the already 35% cut made by the finance department on oil expenditures. This step would save Rs. 50,000 per month to the public exchequer, said the minister. On the instructions of the provincial minister, TEVTA officers decided to reduce their traveling allowance expenses by 10%, which will save 50,000 per month.
Similarly, after the expiry of the period of the emergent staff hired for the current partial period, it was decided to take these services from the existing permanent staff, which will save Rs. 2.1 million per month in TEVTA expenses, said the official sources of TEVTA.
Moreover, the provincial minister also issued orders to transfer TEVTAs central office from a rented building to the department’s owned building at Hayatabad, Peshawar.
During the meeting, it was decided that through the rationalization and restructuring of TEVTA, the staff in its head office would be kept as per the requirement and the additional staff services would be transferred to the training institutes of the authority, which will not only improve the training performance of these educational institutes but rather, this initiative will save about Rs. 2,85,000 per month in financial expenses.
Furthermore, the process of hiring people from the market for temporary teaching purposes in technical education institutions will no longer be adopted and these services will be taken from the permanent staff of the colleges as more staff will be provided to the colleges in rationalization. Rs. 3,58,000 per month would be saved by this initiative taken by the minister.
It was further decided in the meeting that the powers of Class IV employees recruitment would be devolved from TEVTA to the heads of technical educational institutions wherein, necessary legislation will also be made accordingly, the minister told.
Meanwhile, the minister issued instructions to the authority’s high-ups for repairing the dysfunctional grounded vehicles in the central office of the authority and other educational institutions across the province so as to make them functional, which will save millions of rupees instead of the purchase of new vehicles.
Addressing the meeting, the caretaker minister said that the agenda of bringing reforms in TEVTA was to make this institution in accordance with the needs of the market because in the context of global economic conditions, the preparation of a manpower force equipped with technical training capabilities was the only way to reduce unemployment in our province and it can be an important tool for the elimination of poverty.
He further said that TEVTA’s training institutes were being strengthened to prepare manpower according to the demand of the international market.