The appointment of some Asst. Executive Engineers as Officiating Executive Engineers bypassing several seniors is surely a dangerous trend. However it is hard to believe that this order originated from the Office of the CEE who himself is holding this post on ad-hoc basis.
Surely this order must have come from his political bosses. I also recall an advertisement in the leading newspapers some time back inviting applications for direct recruitment to the post of Executive Engineers in the Electricity Department. The prescribed qualification was a Degree in Electrical Engineering with 7 years experience. However a rare criteria was that the upper age limit was given as 39 years, a very odd figure for any recruitment. This would make eligible a very select few engineers in the Electricity Department to qualify for this post bypassing several seniors because of upper age limit. And probably these very same engineers are now being promoted as Officiating Executive Engineers. This move certainly smacks of some sort of corruption or fixing.
It is a well known fact that the Electricity Department has a shortage of qualified Engineers especially to fill up the senior posts of Executive Engineers and above. Majority of the engineers in the Department are diploma holders, and at present they are promoted upto Executive Engineers. For several years some Superintending Engineers and even the Chief Electrical Engineer have been getting extensions in service after their retirement age, since there were no qualified personnel within the Department to fill up these posts. Even the present Chief Electrical Engineer is an AMIE and not a regular degree holder. (even though he is highly competent for the job).
This situation has risen due to faulty policies of recruitment and promotions being followed by the Electricity Department. Both Diploma and degree holders are recruited as Junior Engineers with the same promotion avenues, whereby most of the competent degree holders have left the department seeking better prospects in private companies rather than rotting in the Department. And today with so much of advancement in technology, it is imperative that the department is manned by highly qualified staff.
As for the Diploma holders already in the Department, the Government should arrange for classes such as AMIE during the weekends so that the competent among them can qualify and be eligible for promotions to the senior posts.
