The Institutional Reforms Committee headed by Prime Minister''s Advisor on Institutional Reforms and Austerity, Dr. Ishrat Hussain has reportedly recommended privatisation of more than three dozens public sector entities and financial institutions, well-informed sources told Business Recorder.
The federal government currently has about 440 Organizational Entities (OEs), which consist of numerous attached departments, subordinate offices, autonomous bodies, registered companies, statutory corporations etc under various Divisions/ Ministries.
The present organizational architecture is riddled with diffused responsibility and clear lack of accountability for results, Dr Hussain has noted and keeping in view the reform agenda of the government, it may be appropriate to examine the rationale and jurisdiction for each of these entities which have evolved overtime in an ad-hoc manner.
"There is no institutionalized mechanism whereby entities can be created, modified or wound up," he said, adding that the nomenclature, functions and legal authority of these entities vary across the Ministries and there is no uniform or standard criteria that can provide meaningful distinctions between each of these entities or units of the government.
Analysis carried out by the Institutional Reforms Cell show that these entities need to be brought under a standardized system of organisation and aligned with the goals of good governance.
In this backdrop, the Task Force on Austerity and Restructuring of Government examined all these entities and divided them into following seven categories: (i) those to be privatized or transferred to Sarmaya Pakistan Limited (44); (ii) those to be transferred to the Provincial Governments, Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) and Gilgit Baltistan( 14); (iii) those to be liquidated, wound up or closed down (4) to be merged with other entities ( 32); (iv) those to be reorganized as training and policy support institutes; and (iv) the remaining OEs to be retained by the federal government only in two broad categories, ie, Executive Departments (84) and autonomous bodies (243).
A detailed mapping exercise was carried out regarding proposed configurations of the existing organizational entities. The existing attached departments and subordinate offices have been mapped separately from the existing autonomous bodies, registered companies, statutory corporations etc. As a result, it is generally proposed to retain the attached departments and subordinate offices as Executive Departments and the autonomous bodies, registered companies, statutory corporations etc as autonomous bodies. Resultantly, the federal government would retain 327 organizational entities under two broad categories of (i) Executive Departments (84) and; (ii) Autonomous Bodies (243).
The Institutional Reforms Committee considered three categories of Federal Government Organizations as possible candidates for privatization, ie, (a) Commercial/Semi Commercial/Manufacturing Business (46) (b) Public Utilities/service providers (42) and (c) Financial Institutions (21). 109 OEs account for 27 percent of the total OEs under the Federal Government.
The Privatization Commission furnished information about the Organizations included in the pipeline for privatization. In addition the Task force made its own assessment as to which other organizations can be considered as candidates for privatization. On the basis of this examination the panel came to the conclusion that at least 40 OEs can be privatized.
For the time being the panel does not include the Discos in Peshawar, Tribal Areas, Quetta and Hyderabad. The number of OEs in these three categories should therefore decline from 109 to 73 by the time the privatization process is completed. The following list shows the organizations that will no longer remain part of the Federal Government and are therefore excluded from any further scrutiny: (i) Cabinet Printing Corporation of Pakistan (PCP);(ii) State Life Insurance Corporation (SLIC);(iii) Pakistan International Airlines (PIA); (iv) Kushhali Bank of Pakistan (KBP); (v)Industrial Development Bank of Pakistan (IDBP); (vi) National Investment Trust (NIT);(vii) SME Bank; (viii) Zarai Taraqqiati Bank Limited (ZTBL);(ix) First Women Bank Ltd.(FWBL);(x) National Construction Company (NCC); (xi) Hazara Phosphate Fertilizer Ltd;(xii) Pakistan Steel Mills Corporations; (xiii) Sind Engineering Pvt Limited;(xiv) Heavy Electrical Complex;(xv) Heavy Mechanical Complex;(xvi) Pakistan Machine Tool Factory;(xvii) Pakistan Engineering Corporation; (xviii) Telephone Industry of Pakistan; (xix) Oil & Gas Development Corporation (OGDCL) ;(xx) Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL);(xxi) Pakistan State Oil Company Ltd (PSO); (xxii) Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Ltd (SNGPL); (xxiii) Sui Southern Gas Companies Ltd.(SSGC);(xxiv) Pakistan Mineral Development Corporation (PMDC) - Salt and Coal Mines;(xxv) Malam Jabba Resort Limited;(xxvi) PTDC - Motels and Restaurants ;(xxvii) National Power Construction Corporation (NPCC);(xxviii) Jamshoro Power Generation Co;(xxix) Central Power Generation Co; (xxx) Northern Power Generation Co; (xxxi) Lakhra Power Generation Co; and (xxxii) nine Discos.