Anomalies detected in appointment of Mardan varsity employees.

PESHAWAR -- The Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) has detected irregularities in appointment of more than 270 employees of Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, according to officials.

'We have solid evidence that 271 employees of different cadres have been recruited illegally. It has caused Rs210 million losses to the national exchequer,' a senior ACE official told Dawn.

He said that the ACE had requested the chief secretary to grant it permission to probe two senior officials in BPS-18 and BPS-21 for their involvement in the illegal appointments.

The ACE conducted an inquiry into the allegations against the university and concluded that 271 regular employees in different grades were appointed without any justification and sanctioned positions.

Officials said that the appointed individuals were ineligible as per advertisement and the committees constituted for scrutiny, test and interview failed to apply due diligence.

The inquiry report, a copy of which is available with Dawn, said that since the appointments were made in complete disregard of the laid down procedure and in violation of merit, the appointing authority and various committees constituted for the purpose of scrutiny, test and interview could not be pardoned.

ACE seeks chief secretary's permission to probe senior officials

It said that the all the appointments of contract employees were made illegally and in violation of statutes. The advertisement was published on September 11, 2015 and the initial closing date of the advertisement was September 25, 2015, which was extended to October 5, 2015, it added.

'The required number of posts for each cadre has not been mentioned in the advertisement. Moreover, no figure is available to know that how many candidates applied for the positions,' said the report. It said that the list of applications received by closing date was not maintained in the office of the registrar. 'It is astonishing to note that appointments under this advertisement continued till August, 2017,' it added.

The inquiry report also said that no dairy dispatch register was provided to testify as to how many candidates applied for various posts. The ACE team concluded that a handful of candidates were scrutinised and forwarded to the selection and promotion committee for interview, it added.

'It is astonishing to note that even the candidates declared eligible were found to be ineligible on...