OGDC MD’s appointment close to being finalised

ISLAMABAD: The petroleum ministry has at long last finalised the appointment of the managing director of the Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL), but the issue is still not controversy-free as two of the four shortlisted candidates are OGDCL’s contractors.

The country’s largest oil and gas explorer has been functioning on an adhoc basis for the last four years since the PML-N government came into power.

At present, the company is being run by acting managing director Zahid Mir who is also the chief operating officer (COO) of the company.

Now, at last the process of appointing a new permanent MD of the company is in its final stage.

According to an official in the ministry, four names are under consideration and it has been reliably learnt that two candidates are current OGDCL’s contractors and are doing business with the company worth millions of dollars.

Authorities are weighing the issue of conflict of interest if a contractor is appointed as the head of the largest state-owned enterprise.

The ministry has not been able to appoint a permanent head during the last four years despite court orders and public opinion. It is facing a challenge of overcoming desire of pressure groups in making a merit based appointment.

It has also been learnt that the process will be finalised as delaying it will have legal and political consequences. The government is already under pressure to clear its position on accountability and transparency.

The petroleum ministry is considering a panel of four names to be sent to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for the post of new OGDCL chief. They include Nadeem Bajwa, Zahid Mir, Mohammad Asim and Zia Qureshi.

Bajwa and Asim are OGDCL contractors and their firms are beneficiaries of some of the companies’ contracts involving hundreds of millions of dollars.

Mir was formally an employee of UK-based oil company and is the adhoc head of OGDCL since April 2015. Qureshi is an oil and gas professional based in Australia with previous employment with a state owned oil company in Libya.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 7^th, 2016.

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