LAHORE: Quietly hire a retiring man as consultant without legal process, virtually giving him extension in service, place an advertisement in newspapers a month later if, and when, someone points out the illegality and trim the job qualifications according to the CV of the man already hired; this seems to be the new criteria in the National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC) for hiring someone for half a million rupee per month.

The process, as NTDC human resource department officials privately confess, violates the rules of Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) for hiring services, falls under the misconduct clause of the Corporate Governance Rules and also flies in the face of the spirit of the Supreme Court verdict which ruled such virtual extensions out.

The NTDC, however, is not ready to concede, when asked precisely whether its act violates the PPRA rules and was tantamount to corporate miss-governance. It avoided answer to both direct questions and instead eulogised the qualifications of the hired man: “The consultant, ex-GM (GSC), had an expertise in transmission network and the projects were already being supervised by him at the time of his retirement. His hiring has the approval of NTDC Board of Directors (fully independent in its decisions according to Companies Ordinance 1984).”

The NTDC, however, placed an advertisement in national newspapers very next day, inviting applications for the same post and, according to insiders, set qualification criteria, considering the curriculum vitae of the consultant it had already hired.

The GM (Grid System Construction) Abdul Razzaq Cheema retired on July 3, 2015. On his retirement, he was immediately hired at Rs500,000 per month – almost three times the salary he was drawing till a day before. His consultancy contract bears the date of July 6, 2015. The advertisement for the slot appeared in newspaper on August 1 – some 25 days after the man was actually hired.

“This is not a unique case,” says an NTDC official. “Earlier, former GM (telecom), Samar Gull Khan, who retired was also hired in a similar fashion. He retired on March 31 and was hired as consultant on April 8 for one year against a package of Rs300,000 per month. Since the Ministry of Water and Power and the Board of Directors of NTDC are at loggerheads, both fighting legal battle, the NTDC, as a company, has become a rudderless ship. Anyone, with even slightest influence in the company, is having his way due to these peculiar circumstance,” the official said.

“The situation allows complete administrative and financial freedom to those who matter in the company. The BoD is in fact relaxing rules so that they stay on the right side of the divide. No one knows how the BoD, having some legal eagles as its members, approved the appointments without going through the necessary regulatory process. Why the BoD was not mindful of the Corporate Governance Rules? Who allowed placing of an advertisement for a post for which the person has already been hired a month later? The BoD may be independent, but does it operate outside Pakistan’s legal (PPRA rules and Corporate Governance Rules) framework? Was it misled or conniving? These questions beg answers from the BoD and the management of the company,” he said.

When attention of the ministry was drawn to these allegedly illegal appointments costing the company Rs800,000 per month, it, promising to investigate the whole affair, maintained: “The ministry will fulfill its legal obligations in respect of affairs related to any of its entity or company, as warranted by law.”

Published in Dawn, August 3rd, 2015

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