ISLAMABAD: The Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) has raised objections on “irregular” appointment of executive director (ED) by the Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd’s (OGDCL’s)board of directors (BoD), which reportedly causes a loss of Rs13.5 million to the public exchequer.

Audit is of the view that due to “undue favour”, a candidate who could not qualify for the position of general manager was appointed as Executive Director ED (Petroserv). Therefore, the appointment as well as payment of salary of Rs13.5 million was “irregular”.

The Audit Report for financial year 2019-20 observed that the management floated an advertisement for the post of general manager (Drilling Services), a position under ED (Petroserv), along with other posts including ED (Petroserv), on February 24, 2019. The management, however, scrapped the recruitment process of GM (Drilling Services) as no candidate was considered eligible for the said position.

Muhammad Aamir Salim was said to be among the “ineligible” candidates who were not recommended by the Recruitment Committee due to irrelevant experience.

Similarly, no candidate was selected for the post of ED (Petroserv).

On June 30, 2019, the management again advertised for the post of ED (Petroserv).

The previous advertisement required six years’ senior management position experience for the position but no such condition was mentioned in the new advertisement. Muhammad Aamir Salim applied for the said post and was appointed as ED (Petroserv) on August 7, 2019.

The management of the OGDCL instead of bringing a policy change in HR, only changed the criteria for appointment of ED (Petroserv) purportedly benefit a specific candidate.

The management of the OGDCL replies that the entire process of recruitment of the ED (Petrosev) was done through the board secretariat.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021