A parliamentary panel on Wednesday directed the ministry of petroleum and the management of the Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) to provide the entire record of irregular appointments made over the past 17 years.
The meeting of sub-committee of the National Assembly''s Standing Committee on Petroleum and Natural Resources held here with Chaudhary Mohammad Barjees Tahir, the sub-committee''s convenor in the chair.
The committee took up the following issues: (I) Irregular hiring of Colonel (retd) Mohammed Anwar Khan as the Deputy Chief Security Officer (DSCO) on contract basis in July 1995, but his services were regularised by OGDCL''s Board of Directors. (II) Appointment of grade-22 officers without observing codal formalities which caused an estimated loss of Rs65.132 million to OGDCL. (III) Irregular appointment of an executive director the firm''s human resource department which caused a loss of Rs17 million to the company. (IV) Irregular appointment of a part-time consultant with open terms of reference (ToR) and payments of remuneration which caused a loss of Rs5 million to OGDCL.
Barjees Tahir, while directing relevant officials to submit detailed details about qualifications and experience of all applicants who applied for these posts, observed that OGDCL''s management had time and again violated set appointment criteria.
MNA Abdul Wasim, Secretary Petroleum Ejaz Chaudhry and officials of the Oil and Gas Development Company also attended the meeting.
During the meeting convenor Barjees Tahir said that although people working in OGDCL were well-educated, but sheer violations had been witnessed in some areas. He said that such examples of corruption were not seen in any other department. He said that departmental inquiries were held but actions had not been taken against those responsible.
Barjees Tahir said that only inquiries had been ordered one after another, which was unfortunate and unjust. Glaring examples of nepotism had also been observed in OGDCL, Barjees Tahir maintained.
Secretary Petroleum Ejaz Chaudhry admitted that recruitment in OGDCL had been made without following proper criteria and appointments were made with advertising the posts in the papers, relaxing job conditions.
The committee''s convener directed officials concerned to provide details regarding the appointments of 22 officers on the orders of the then MD Raziuddin. He said that in this regard, the MD did not follow rules.
The sub-committee also directed officials concerned to provide a copy of the advertisement for the appointment of the executive director, Human Resources, Shehzad Suddan. It also directed them to provide names, qualifications and experience of applicants.
The convenor also directed officials to clarify the criteria of appointment of board of director members.
Muhammad Barjees Tahir also directed the officials of OGDCL to give detailed report about the appointment of Dr Amir Murad as a part-time consultant.