OGDC decides to stop entry of politically-backed appointee
State-owned Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDC) has decided to impose restrictions on politically-backed deputation of government employees in the company as Rs22 million has been paid to these employees to date in violation of the deputation policy.
Sources told The Express Tribune that the human resource committee of the OGDC board of directors is scheduled to meet today (Tuesday) and amend the deputation policy for stopping officials working in different departments and ministries, seeking deputation in OGDC.
Under the new proposed Amendment Policy 2011, no government department will be able to send officials on deputation to OGDC unless the company sends requests for a vacancy.
At present, officials inducted into OGDC on deputation are permitted to receive an additional 20 per cent allowance along with gross salary they continue to receive from their former department.
During Syed Naveed Qamar’s regime as petroleum minister, many officials working in different departments, especially in the petroleum ministry, were deputed in OGDC and got millions of rupees in salaries in violation of the deputation policy.
Current Additional Petroleum Secretary Naeem Malik was deputed in OGDC as managing director when he was Ministry of Petroleum’s petroleum concession director general and received a salary of Rs1 million per month.
Another official Arif Ibrahim, working as joint petroleum secretary, was deputed as executive director human resource and received a salary of Rs0.8 million per month. In his case, OGDC had withdrawn requisition for his deputation but the petroleum ministry forced the company’s management to retain him.
These officials were entitled to a 20 per cent additional allowance but they received salaries even more than regular employees, another gross violation of the deputation policy.
Petroleum Minister Dr Asim Hussain after his appointment issued directives for sending back all officials on deputation in OGDC.
Petroleum Secretary Ejaz Chaudhry confirmed to The Express Tribune that amendments in the deputation policy were under way. “I have given directives to tighten the deputation policy of OGDC to restrict officials working in different ministries and departments from getting deputation,” said Chaudhry.
The officials deputed in the company on key posts had once tried to amend the deputation policy to legalise their salaries but they did not succeed, sources said.
These officials wanted to get rid of the condition regarding required service and relevant experience for deputation, enabling them to get a pay equal to regular employees of the company.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 4th, 2011.
COMMENTS (3)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
This is good.
I have no understanding of these numbers. My last-drawn pay in government in Grade-21 was Rs 13,000 per month of which Rs 1,300 was my PhD allowance. While that was a long time ago and one would have to apply a price INFLATOR to bring it into current price terms, these millions in compensation boggle the mind.
I am glad to see that. All government organization should block deputation at least in technical organizations. People with no formal technical know how starts meddling into the affairs of a technical team.This results in change in direction that often leads to mess. We have the example of WAPDA etc where such people on deputation has led the menace of energy crisis.
Finally someone is scratching his head...........:)