Hiring for DISCOs
Some aspirants for the post of independent directors of the Board of Directors of 10 power distribution companies have submitted a written complaint to the Prime Minister alleging favouritism and lack of transparency in the ongoing hiring process for the above-mentioned vacancies. The complainants say, “Without any proper and plausible criteria of short-listing the candidates on merit — retired chief executive officers of power distribution companies and others have been called for online interviews while ignoring experts, experienced and qualified candidates.” All the complainants are retired professionals.
The Ministry of Energy advertised on Nov 24, 2019 the vacancies for distribution companies based in Islamabad, Lahore, Faisalabad, Multan, Gujranwala, Quetta, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Peshawar and tribal areas. Directors of some of the companies’ BoDs, however, continued to occupy their positions much beyond their tenures. Though the vacancies for the posts of directors of the four above-mentioned companies were initially advertised on May 26, 2019, those who had applied were asked to apply again in the November 2019 advertisement.
In the initial advertisement, it was stated that candidates registered with the Pakistan Institute of Corporate Governance would be given preference but the requirement was waived in the November 2019 advertisement. The complainants have alleged that no proper boards of interview with members drawn from engineering, management, finance and corporate law have been constituted to interview the applicants. They claim the online interviews were a mere formality and those who could pull the strings in right places would only be appointed They have asked the PM to cancel the ongoing hiring process, advertise the vacancies afresh, and appoint a reputed consultant firm to carry out the appointment process in order to ensure transparency in the hiring process.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 2nd, 2020.
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