KARACHI: The government audit of the Fishermen Cooperatives Society (FCS) has not been carried out for over seven to eight years owing to non-production of records by the management, said Sindh Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Dr Sikander Mandhro.

He was responding to queries by legislators during the question hour that pertained to the cooperation department in the Sindh Assembly’s Friday session which started 50 minutes behind the scheduled time of 10am as mentioned in the order of the day. The session was chaired by Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani.

Dr Mandhro was responding to questions as Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, who heads the cooperation department, was not present in the assembly to respond to the legislators’ questions.

Answering a question by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz legislator Shafi Jamote regarding the audit of FCS accounts, the minister said that the FCS management had not been maintaining the record since 2006 so no audit could be carried out. However, efforts were being made to streamline the system.

In response to another of his question whether any action had been taken against the management, the minister responded that show cause notices had been issued and eventually the board members of FCS were sacked and a new management put in place as the society was not functioning according to the rules. However, the old management took the matter to court which reinstated it and a status quo was ordered. He said that the old management was in office till the final decision of the court.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) legislator Dr Zafar Kamali inquired whether, with the status quo in place, efforts were being made by the government for improvement. The minister said that the status quo was not to disturb or remove the board members and the government could still carry out its responsibilities like asking for records, carrying out audits, etc. He said that the management always made promises, and was doing so again, yet no records had been provided.

Syed Hafeezudin of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and Zubair Ahmed Khan of the MQM said that the administrators appointed by the departments in various cooperative societies were involved in corruption and many of them had even sold societies’ land — commercial plots, etc — for which they did not have the powers. Dr Mandhro said that the administrators had no such powers and they were appointed to carry out day-to-day affairs only. If any such incident had occurred the legislators should point it out specifically and the government would look in to it. Responding to a query by PTI legislator Dr Seema Zia regarding the qualifications of the administrators, the minister said that the law prescribed no qualification for the administrator.

MQM legislator Sardar Ahmed said that the administrator had to hold elections within six months to elect new office bearers but there were incidents that the elections had not been held for many years and unelected / nominated administrators held the post. Dr Mandhro agreed that the situation was not ideal in the department.

Mr Ahmed then pointed out that the cooperation department was in a mess and those with vested interests used loopholes in the Sindh Cooperative Societies Act, 1925, according to which the department / societies functioned, and the poor people suffered. Dr Mandhro agreed that the act needed to be reviewed, amended and improved or even a new one could be formulated. He said that owing to mismanagement even the Sindh Cooperatives Bank (SCB) had become non-functional. He said that the federal cooperatives bank gave loans to the SCB which then provided agricultural loans to growers. However, the growers did not return the loans and so the bank suffered. He said that to provide relief all such loans were written off and new ones provided, but the growers again did not return the loans and so the bank has defaulted.

Sardar Ahmed, who is a retired bureaucrat and held the post of cooperatives secretary, adding on to Dr Mandhro’s information, said that influential people and big landlords collected the land records — passbook etc — of small growers, farmers and submitted it to the SCB as collateral to obtain loans, but then did not bother to return. The bank tried to take action against the small growers, whose land records were kept as collateral, who then raised a hue and cry and the issue was dropped. He said that big landlords and influential people took loans in the names of the small growers / farmers, who then suffered.

Speaker Durrani suggested that Mr Ahmed and Dr Mandhro sit together and try to formulate a better law through which the small growers, businessmen, etc could benefit from the cooperatives system which was being practised very successfully around the globe.

Responding to a question by PML-Functional legislator Nusrat Sehar Abbasi regarding female and disabled representation in the department, the minister responded that 13 women and 3 handicapped had been appointed in the department. To another of her questions regarding the various quotas, the minister said that 5 per cent quota was reserved for minorities and women each, while 2pc was reserved for the handicapped. He did agree that the recruitment was not according to prescribed quotas. He also said that at times when jobs were advertised lesser number of people applied against the quotas and so the vacancies were filled by other applicants. However, when the recruitments were done the next time, efforts were made to appoint more such people so the overall quotas were maintained.

Ghost employees

Responding to a short notice question by Ms Abbasi regarding ghost employees and lower grade officials holding higher grade posts in the civic agencies of the metropolis, Local Bodies Minister Sharjeel Memon said that efforts were being made to screen out ghost employees by carrying out physical verifications. He shared that a large number of such ghost employees were “recruited” in the sanitation department owing to which the waste disposal system was not functioning properly. Garbage is not removed from the city as there were no employees and their salaries were being pocketed by others.

He said that another menace in the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) and the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) was that a large number of promotions had been done by the KMC, KWSB internally – at the level of administrators, managing directors, chairman etc. All relevant records relating to appointment and promotions are missing. Citing an example he said that a case in the KWSB has been detected where an official had given himself a promotion. Citing some other cases he said that in the KMC and KWSB people appointed in BPS 14 were promoted and were now serving in BPS 20, while those appointed in BPS 7 were promoted and were now serving in BPS 18, with no related record available as to how they were promoted and by whom. Such cases were being handled carefully and stern action would be taken against all those found involved in wrong doing, added Mr Memon.

MQM legislator Moin Pirzada, PML-N legislator Sorath Thebo and others also participated.

Published in Dawn, April 18th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play