Govt nominees on PSE boards drawing illegal payments: TIP

Civil servants get paid by companies for attending board meetings.

KARACHI: Transparency International Pakistan (TIP) in a letter to Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has pointed out illegal remuneration drawn by civil servants as nominated members on the board of directors of public sector enterprises (PSEs) and listed companies.

It claimed that it has received a complaint that almost all the civil servants representing federal or provincial governments on PSEs’ including corporations, authorities and companies were not depositing their remuneration in the exchequer which is against the government rules.

The complainant has reported that civil servants are also nominated on the boards of many private sector listed companies on the strength of major share holders like Habib Bank, United Bank, Fauji Fertilizer and Hubco.

According to rules, when civil servants are sent on government duty, they are only entitled to travel and food allowances as the government is paying them for performing any duty assigned to them, in form of a monthly salary and other benefits.

That in some companies, these nominated directors have been drawing nearly Rs85,000 per meeting of the board and board’s committees, which comes to over Rs400,000 from nearly five meetings per month, TIP said.

TIP requested the finance minister to order that all civil servants who are representing government on the boards of PSEs, as well as in private listed companies to declare all such income for the last five years, and deposit it in the national exchequer.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 22^nd, 2013.