Will clean the mess: Nongrum
SHILLONG: A day after RTI findings revealed ‘nepotism’ and ‘favoritism’ in the appointment of staff in the KHADC, an embarrassed Chief Executive member (CEM) Adelbert Nongrum on Friday said that the Council was contemplating to come up with its own ‘recruitment policy’ to ensure transparency in the appointment process.
“We will come up with our own recruitment policy to ensure total transparency in the recruitment process in the Council,” Nongrum said, while admitting that the Council had failed to come up with such a policy since its inception.
“I accept that there was lack of transparency in filling up of vacant posts in the Council in the past. But this kind of discrepancy will no longer be tolerated. We are committed to cleaning the whole mess to lift the image of the KHADC,” the CEM said, while stating “it is never too late to make a new beginning”.
He informed that the Executive Committee was on the job to see that the policy is implemented at the earliest.
He further informed that the Council might constitute an independent body that would be given the responsibility of recruiting staff.
“Any future appointments will be based purely on merit. We want to eradicate the culture of political favoritism,” Nongrum said.
On the charge that most of the top KHADC functionaries were under qualified, the KHADC chief pointed out that the situation was totally different 35 years ago since there were few graduates at that time.
“We should understand that the people occupying the top posts in the Council have reached such positions through promotions. We cannot undermine their capabilities as administrators. I know their capabilities since I work with them,” he said.
Nongrum, however, admitted that the RTI findings, as revealed by the Synjuk Seng Samla Shnong (SSSS), was definitely a ‘wake up’ call to improve the system in the KHADC.