ABDUL RASHEED AZAD

ISLAMABAD: A parliamentary panel probing irregularities in Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDCL) Limited on Thursday directed the authorities concerned to present details within one week of irregular appointments in the company since 1995.

The panel met under the chairmanship of Chaudhry Mohammed Barjees Tahir, Convener of the National Assembly’s Sub-Committee on Petroleum and Natural Resources here.

The committee took up the following issues:

(i) Irregular hiring of Col Mohammed Anwar Khan ® as deputy Chief Security Officer (DSCO) on contract basis in July 1995, with his services regularized by the OGDCL Board of Directors; (ii) Appointment of 22 officers without observing the codal formalities which caused an estimated loss of Rs 65.132 million to OGDCL; (iii) Irregular appointment of Executive Director Human Resource which caused a loss of Rs 17 million to the company; and (iv) Irregular appointment of part-time consultant with open Terms of Reference (ToR) and payment of remuneration which caused a loss of Rs 5 million to OGDCL.

Barjees Tahir directing the relevant officials to submit detailed reports about qualification and experience of all applicants who applied for these posts observed that OGDCL management had, time and again, violated the criteria set for appointments.

Briefing the panel Basharat Mirza, Managing Director of OGDCL said most of these irregular appointments were made during Musharraf era when Major General Pervaiz Khan was MD. Mirza added that a number of these irregularly appointed people have left or retired so the company is unable to take any action against them.

Barjees asked Mirza to provide record of the appointment of Executive Director (ED) Human Resource, which caused a loss of Rs 17 million to the company. MD OGDCL replied that all relevant records were lost and therefore the management is unable to provide the records to the committee. The committee then directed OGDCL management to lodge a First Information Report (FIR) with police and directed MD OGDCL to provide details to the committee within a week.

In the last meeting of the standing committee, Ejaz Chaudhry, Secretary Ministry of Petroleum had admitted that recruitments in the OGDCL did not follow the criteria and appointments were made without advertising the posts in papers.

The Convener directed the officials to give a detailed report about appointment of 22 officers on the order of the then MD Raziuddin. He said in this regard, MD violated the rules and made all the appointments under his supervision, which shows that he was involved in irregular appointments of 22 officers, causing a loss of Rs65.132 million to the company.

Briefing the committee, Hamad Asghar, Joint Secretary Petroleum Ministry assured that his ministry would take all necessary steps as per law and would cooperate with the committee. He said if the OGDCL management has lost the record of abovementioned cases action should be taken against the company’s management.