ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) has decided to discontinue the “unnecessary” ‘Golden Handshake’ scheme for 46 employees who were eyeing Rs2 billion in compensation.

The work on the ‘Golden Handshake’ scheme had been under process since the defunct Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) became functional.

“However the council of the PMDC decided to discontinue the process as a huge amount was to be paid to officials, out of whom many were facing cases of malpractices and embezzlement and therefore wanted to quit the PMDC by availing this financial benefit,” a senior official told Dawn wishing not to be quoted.

According to documents, available with Dawn, among those who wanted to avail the ‘Golden Handshake’ scheme, two were in the special payscale (SPS) 10, eight in SPS-9, seven in SPS-8 and as many as 10 were in SPS-7. The others were in the lower grades.

Many workers wanting to avail facility facing corruption cases

The documents showed that two gross salaries for each completed year of service and one running basic pay for each remaining months of service till superannuation had to be paid to the employees.

Moreover 200pc commutation of pension as full and final payment settlement of pension liability had to be paid. It was also promised that employees will get one-year gross salary from the PMDC Welfare Grant.

The documents also showed that employees, who opted for the Golden Handshake scheme, would get self-subscription plus PMDC contribution and interest after adjustment of outstanding advance amount from the Provident Fund. They also had to get leave encashment for up to 365 days.

A senior PMDC official said employees, of which a number of them were controversial, wanted to seek an escape by taking millions on account of the scheme.

“Employees with court cases and facing termination from service prioritised themselves in the Golden Handshake scheme. The total number of the PMDC employees was 287, including those working in territorial site offices, daily-wage workers as well as contractual and regular employees. Out of these 287 employees around 40 were facing court cases and might face dismissal if corruption cases against them were proved,” he said.

“When the ‘Golden handshake’ was calculated for the 46 employees as per the regulations the sum had a hefty financial impact of nearly Rs1.5 to Rs2 billion. The matter was taken up by the council in which it was collectively decided to discontinue the scheme,” he said.

A top official, while talking to Dawn, said it was unfortunate that employees were trying to mint almost Rs2 billion from the PMDC by availing the Golden Handshake scheme.

“It would have been double benefit for them as some of them were to be dismissed. So they tried to get a hefty amount under the pretext that they would surrender their pensions,” he added.

Published in Dawn, June 25th, 2024