The Employees Old Age Benefits Institution (EOBI) has appointed a high-ranking official, IT Project Director, at a lucrative package, ignoring all necessary requirements and rules and regulations.
According to documents made available to Business Recorder, the EOBI management has appointed an IT Project Director, who does not fulfil the requirements for the post, for Rs 1.8 million on one-year contract.
The EOBI's prerequisites for the post, as per advertisement which appeared in leading newspapers, were that the candidate must have Master's Degree in Computer Science or Business Administration, with MIS from a chartered University or a foreign university.
The EOBI was seeking a project director to head a team of consultants and in-house professionals for implementation of IT solution for providing efficient registration of employees and employers and facilitating the pensioners in getting their pensions promptly and conveniently through automation of its process and interconnectivity of field officers and employers.
IT department of EOBI said that their was no need for a director because two phases (Study & Development) of the project had been completed, which was done by a local company. The work on the remaining two phases ie Business and Deployment, had to be completed.
There were 10 candidates for the post including Haider Raza, B E (Elec) & Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE), 14 years experience; Waleed Manzoor, MCS, CCNA, 19 years experience; M Ali Jinnah, BBC (Australia), 13 years experience; Ayaz Ahmed M.E (Computer Science), six years experience; S Qasim Jafri, MBA (Marketing & IT), 22 years experience & working with EOBI; Shiraz A Bhatti, MS/MCS/M Phil, five years experience; Masood A Khan, M.S. (IT), four years experience as System Administrator; Ahsan Qadir Munshi, MBA (Marketing & IT), 22 years experience; Yousuf Khan, MBA, MIS, 13 years experience; and Waqar Sami Khan, MCS, 30 years experience.
Two candidates Haider Raza and Waleed Manzoor were short-listed, and finally Haider Raza was appointed as IT Project Director. It is worth mentioning that Haider Raza does not have an MCS degree or Business Administration with MIS and 15 years experience, which was compulsory for the post.
Waleed Manzoor, the other-short listed candidate, had offered the EOBI that he could not be available for the institution for one year and he would complete the project in six months, which would cost EOBI Rs 0.9 million against Rs 1.8 million (if contract is not extended).
However, the management approved Haider Raza for the post via Ref No P/C-Appoint-Cont/2003 and decided to pay Rs 150,000 per month, ignoring all ground realities. The Board of Trustees (BOT) of EOBI did not sanction the salary, but the management has started paying him.
In a letter, DDG (F&A) objected on the salary of Haider Raza and noted that "the appointment is on far higher salary; this may have adverse repercussion for the existing salary structure which also will have to be revised, especially for senior positions, increasing the overall cost of the administration of EOBI scheme." He added that Haider Raza has been given DDG's status, so he should not be entitled to get more than Rs 25,100 per month.
Sources said that the person would be regularised and efforts in this regard had been made. Through an official letter, Haider Raza has recently been assigned to look after the entire IT Department, in addition to the project, and all officials of the IT Department have been ordered to report to him, and all correspondence relating to the department would also be addressed to him.