'Illegal appointments' in PARC eat away millions

Board member calls for convening meeting to resolve outstanding issues

ISLAMABAD: A member of the Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (Parc) board of governors has criticised the Ministry of National Food Security and Research for its intervention into the affairs of the council and has called for convening a meeting of the board to resolve the outstanding issues.

In a letter sent to the minister for national food security and research, Parc board of governors non-executive member Naseer Muhammad Khan revealed that posting of project directors on political grounds as well as family and friendly connections had made a mess of all projects.

It was evident from their performance in terms of very low rate of fund utilisation, surrender of funds, inordinate delay in recruitment of project staff, etc, he said.

Khan drew attention of the minister to what he called mismanagement, unlawful intervention, indecisiveness and indifferent attitude of the Ministry of National Food Security towards the affairs of Parc.

PARC approves seven new rice varieties for cultivation

He said funds approved by the board of governors in the previous meeting including the additional budget for clearing liabilities could not be arranged.

Resultantly, more than 200 retired officers and staff members could not be paid their legitimate service and pension dues and their families were suffering as there were no funds to pay medical bills, utility bills and so on.

He pointed to the persistent refusal to resolve a longstanding issue related to "269 illegally appointed and reinstated employees as per rules and the Islamabad High Court decision of June 12, 2019".

"Millions of rupees are being spent on keeping the said employees at the cost of public exchequer," he said.

Litigation was increasing due to failure of the administrative ministry earlier to process cases for appointing the Parc chairman and the council was facing a serious leadership crisis.

"Outreach establishments of Parc are also facing a financial and leadership crisis as funds expected to be generated from their own sources have decreased drastically due to these factors," he said and called for holding a meeting of the board of governors to resolve the issues.

New chairman

The appointment of the regular Parc chairman, Dr Azeem Khan, has also been questioned as a tailour-made advertisement was published where the age limit was set in the range of 55 to 62 years with MP-I scale position.

According to the federal government policy issued on March 28, 2019, a selection committee can be constituted for the appointment of chairman and must comprise the federal minister, federal secretary, one to three technical members and a non-executive senior member of the Parc board.

However, the Ministry of National Food Security formed the selection committee in violation of the government's guidelines by including some unauthorised members, documents show.

PARC approves seven new rice varieties for cultivation

The committee comprised the federal minister, federal secretary, Establishment Division additional secretary, food security ministry additional secretary and two co-opted members. The addition of unauthorised additional secretaries as members of the selection committee made its recommendations questionable.

Despite repeated attempts to seek comments, the national food security secretary did not respond to the requests.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 2^nd, 2019.

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