KARACHI, Sept 27: In the absence of top management, the working of the House Building Finance Corporation (HBFC) is in jeopardy.
The only housing finance provider in the public sector, the HBFC is not only without a steward but also without the top and middle ranking hierarchy, official sources on Monday said. For all practical purposes the coreporation is paralysed.
Consequently, decision-making, necessary for smooth functioning of an organization, is almost non-existent. Besides the organization, its clients, mostly belong to lower income group and seek housing loan, are also taking the brunt, an insider told Dawn.
At the moment the post of Managing Director in HBFC, who is also the chairman of the Board is vacant. Posts of three executive directors and as many as seven general managers are also lying vacant for the last so many months, sources said.
The out-going managing director of the HBFC Sohail Usman Ali, after completing his three years contract left the corporation on August 26, but not before taking a long leave for 40 days and joining back on August 16, 2004. The official business is, thus, suspended for the last three months, insiders told Dawn.
The change in hierarchy of an organization is nothing abnormal but the way it has so far been carried out in the HBFC does not reflect well on the attitude of the controlling authorities.
The out-going managing director is said to have left without delegating powers to any body. "What kept Ministry of Finance (Revenue Division), under which the HBFC operates, from doing the needful to ensure the smooth functioning of a key institution is hard to understand", said an observer.
"The corporation might not be as efficient as one would have wished it to be. Still it does cater to needs of innumerable people who need credit for housing purposes. It is very unfair to neglect a service providing institution that has a broad base of customers," said a banker associated to home advances.
Presently, as many as three executive director posts - finance, operations, human resource and administration - are lying vacant for over one to nine months, sources said.
The post of executive director, finance is vacant for the last four months; executive director operation's post is lying vacant from January 2004 and that of executive director, human resource and administration vacant from last 45 days. The incumbent chief internal auditor is going to complete his tenure on October 4, 2004. Similarly, as many as seven general managers' posts are also vacant for sometime.
It is unbelievable that an institution like HBFC, which has public dealing in finance had been running without general manager legal affairs for the last two years. This post deals with most important matters of such an institution.
The general manager marketing who was appointed by the out-going Managing Director himself was asked to resign about five months back and the post was still lying vacant.
Another most important post of the corporation - General Manager Recovery, on all Pakistan basis - had been lying vacant for the last three months and he was also appointed by the MD himself, the sources said. A new post of general manager IT was vacated about three to four months back as the man proved to be incompetent and was asked to leave the corporation, insiders told Dawn.
The corporation is facing problems and the expected results have not been achieved thus far. The corporation's accounts have not been reconciled as well. With around 1,125 employees the HBFC has 11 zones and 58 districts, including Azad Kashmir and Northern Areas. It is unfortunate that out of 11 zones only four are running under the guidance of general manager and the remaining seven are supervised by junior officers.
There had been no internal promotions for the last so many years causing resentment and despondency among the employees. The question is who is responsible for all the mess and mismanagement? The Ministry of Finance is best suited to answer the question.