January 22, 2002	Tuesday	Ziqa’ad 7, 1422

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ISLAMABAD, Jan 21: The board of investment (BOI) said on Monday that foreign consultants, who were employed under the trade, export promotion, industries (TEPI) programme loan of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for institutional strengthening, have left the organization.

Commenting on a Dawn report, the BOI said that the former consultants were paid from the TEPI loan money and that at present no foreign consultant was employed in the organization.

The BOI chairman, Waseem Haqui, said that the appointment of these consultants was coordinated by the commerce and finance ministries under the US$300 million TEPI loan before his joining the BOI.

He said that consultants have now left after the completion of their job. He agreed that hiring of foreign consultants was forced upon them under the loan agreement.

The BOI said it has also declared some of the officers and staff members as surplus in line with the government’s policy of rightsizing.

Our staff reporter adds: The BOI has tried to confuse the government exchequer with the ADB’s TEPI loan. It does not matter if the payment was made by the ADB or by the government. In any case, the amount being a loan to the government, would have to be repaid by the dollar-starved people of Pakistan in foreign exchange.