LAHORE: The high-powered committee formed under Advisor to Punjab Chief Minister on Economic Affairs and Planning Salman Shah has almost completed initial review of the 32 public sector companies formed by the last PML-N government and found massive mismanagement and irregularities in them, deciding to ask their officials to explain why and how the bodies could be retained.

“We will decide future of each of the companies after the second review to be based on the viability reports of their present managements. We have asked for balance sheets of the companies, their objectives and business plans with justifications of their continuity,” an official said on Sunday.

The Buzdar government had constituted the committee to look into the affairs of the 32 companies it may continue with. These include waste management, parking and cattle companies operating all over the province.

The official said basically the functioning of the companies had almost been stalled because of the probes by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and other agencies for the last two years. A majority of these companies did not have board of directors, while half of them were without a permanent chief executive.

The top posts in these companies were occupied by bureaucrats chosen by the Shahbaz government and most of them left after NAB launched investigations and change in the government. Since there was no hiring against these management seats, they were being held by junior officials who were unable to take decisions.

The official said the first review indicated “huge financial and administrative mismanagement and possible corruption amounting to billions of rupees” in many of the companies.

He said the previous government increased the number of public sector companies from a few to over 70, creating a parallel management and governance system. Around 20 were created in the local government department alone, robbing it of its basic functions like sanitation, parking lots and or managing cattle markets.

Administrative secretaries were included in the boards of these companies, but majority of them were unable to attend meetings due to their own heavy workload. The finance secretary was a member of the boards of nearly 40 companies.

Published in Dawn, July 25th, 2019