The human resource and administrative work cost of National Telecommunication Corporation (NTC) goes to 80 percent of the budget, leaving only 20 percent for other expenses and development projects. This was stated by the NTC official while briefing the Senate Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunication, which met with Senator Shahi Syed in the chair. The meeting was also attended by Senator Taj Muhammad Afridi, Senator Ghous Muhammad Khan Niazi, Senator Najma Hameed, Senator Abdul Rehman Malik and Secretary Information Technology and Telecommunications.
It was revealed that the NTC is yet to frame regulations for regularizing contractual employees. The committee was informed that the NTC earned Rs 3.2 billion last year but due to financial crunch it has not raised employees' salaries for the last three years. The members of the committee asked the ministry and the NTC to come up with a review on the service regulations, which deal with the number of total employees, criteria of appointment and promotion, and regularization policy of contractual employees.
The meeting was told that the organization has a sanctioned strength of 3,055 employees and currently NTC has 2,350 employees. The employees have not been able to get a pay raise for the last many years due to fund shortage. The committee expressed that posts are created and people are hired to serve the organization and if the purpose is not being achieved in terms of revenue generation and more efficient projects, it should be revisited. The committee was told that a new NTC Board will come into place soon and matters will take a smooth course. The members urged the ministry and NTC to look for more public-private partnerships and development plans.
The committee was further informed that at the time of establishment of NTC, two obsolete systems ie Coaxial Cable / Microwave and very few exchanges were vested along with manpower already posted on these systems. Though initially 2,803 employees were vested to NTC; however, under the provision of Pakistan Telecommunication (Re-organization) Act-1995, almost half of the vested manpower opted for repatriation to PTCL during initial years of the corporation. The remaining vested employees trained on these obsolete systems were not able to run new technologies like optical fiber and modem digital exchanges.
Due to repatriation of the manpower to PTCL, huge gap was created and it became difficult to run the system and maintain round the clock government communications as only four qualified engineers were available who were not sufficient for supervision of entire network throughout the country as well as to plan new infrastructure.
In order to establish its headquarters and regional offices and to provide telecomm services to the subscribers as per provision of Section-41(3) of the Pakistan Telecommunication (Re-organization) Act-1996, essentially required manpower was taken on deputation from armed forces and other government organizations, beside hiring the services of some experienced professionals on contract with the approval of competent forum.
The NTC during the last 21 years not only increased its infrastructure but also reached out 85 cities for provision of IT & telecomm services to its valued subscribers. This was made possible due to its qualified, experienced and hardworking employees. Efforts were always made to induct only essentially required staff as evident from the present strength of the corporation, which is 2,350 against sanctioned strength of 3,055 and is 20 percent less than the initial strength of the corporation.
The committee was informed that during the last 10 years, 325 employees were appointed throughout the country, out of these, 130 left the corporation due to different reasons ie resignation, termination, death etc. This shows that the corporation has not made unnecessary recruitment. During the last 10 years, a total of 948 employees retired, died, resigned, terminated, etc, against which minimum recruitment was made and job has been assigned through internal arrangements to control the HR cost.
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