A parliamentary panel on Wednesday observed that the Council of Common Interests (CCI) can rescue the devolved Employees' Old-age Benefits Institution (EOBI) after two provinces refused to run it on provincial level. In a briefing on the EOBI to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), chaired by Syed Khursheed Shah, Chairman EOBI Muhammad Sualeh Faruqui said that the situation of institution was alarming and suggested increase in rates of contribution besides some structural changes. "Under the current scenario the fund of EOBI will exhaust by 2027," he added.
He said last valuation of EOBI fund and assets was performed in 2012 against Section 21 of EOBI Act 1976 that requires actuarial valuation in every three years. Chairman EOBI further said that in consequence of 18th Amendment, subjects of welfare of labour, invalidity and old age pension etc were deleted from concurrent list and implementation committee did not take up the devolution of the EOBI. The institution was placed under the Ministry of Inter Provincial Co-ordination (IPC) and then with the Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development (OP & HRD). Various litigations are pending before the courts in this regard.
"This limbo is killing its existence as it is no more a federal subject while provinces are not ready to run the institution on provincial level," he added. He said the Sindh government passed Sindh Employees' Old-age Benefits Act 2014 but it has yet to create an institution. Punjab province had filed a petition before the Supreme Court regarding non-devolution of the EOBI to provinces and the court issued notices to all provinces. The provincial assemblies of KP and Balochistan passed resolutions in favour of entrustment of functions under the EOBI ACT 1976 to the federal government.
Secretary OP & HRD Khizer Hayat Khan said that the Ministry of Law opined that the EOBI could not be taken back to parliament or CCI for discussion after abolishment of concurrent list. Currently, he said that the institution was almost paralysed, demoralised because of uncertainty about future and the mega corruption cases in NAB and FIA.
He further said that labour was a federal subject of majority of countries and devolution of health, education and other departments to provinces was not a good decision. His statement infuriated the members of committee from Pakistan People's Party (PPP). Azra Fazal Pechuho warned the secretary that it was not his mandate to speak on the devolution and the PAC was also a not forum to discuss it here. Naveed Qamar also said that the PAC was not the forum where he should discuss the matter.
Earlier, the committee was informed about the corruption of Rs 34 billion involved in purchase of 18 set of properties. Senior officers of EOBI are either behind the bar or facing criminal cases in various courts of law, he added. In one case, an official of EOBI revealed that Rs 9 million was paid as consultancy for construction of two residential bungalows located in Sialkot valued at Rs 61 million which was irregular payment.
The Members Committee asked Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) about his role in stopping massive corruption in EOBI. AGP Rana Asad Amin said that these corruption cases were highlighted in Audit Reports of EOBI which were not taken for discussion in PAC. He further revealed before the committee that the AGP Act would be amended so that mega corruption cases could be brought first in PAC for discussion. The Chairman Committee said that he had written a letter to Speaker National Assembly and suggested some structural changes in PAC forum. He said in the letter he suggested an independent PAC secretariat with extra powers. Member Committee Mahmood Khan Achakzai said that the PAC forum would become more powerful if parliament became powerful.
The committee pended briefing on under construction building of Grant Hayat Hotel in Islamabad and directed Capital Development Authority (CDA) to come up with full details.
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