Food security: Passco employees concerned by absence of managing director

The organisation has been without a head since August 24.

LAHORE:

The Pakistan Agriculture Storage and Services Corporation (Passco) has been without a permanent head for almost two months, leading to various complications for employees and in the release of wheat to the market, The Express Tribune has learnt.

Raja Muhammad Younis, general manager for human resources, was given temporary charge of the post of managing director on August 24, when the federal government transferred the last managing director over complaints of irregular recruitments, an official said. Younis also holds the charge of Passco secretary.

The lack of a permanent head has led to difficulties in decision making, Passco officials said, as the temporary managing director was largely focussed on running day-to-day affairs.



Passco’s job is to provide food security by keeping wheat and other agricultural commodities in stock and releasing these to the market when needed. Failure to make timely decisions in this regard has contributed to the rapid fluctuation of wheat prices in the market, the officials said.

On August 24, Passco held 1.8 million tonnes of wheat in stock. It helps implement the support price for wheat, rice, grams, potato, onion and other food items. It also releases grain to provinces or regions facing a deficit and to the defence forces.

Passco officials said that the lack of a permanent MD was also holding up employee matters, such as requests for leaves. The corporation has 1,304 employees, including 333 officers and 971 subordinate staff.

The Establishment Division recalled the previous managing director, Maj Gen Tauqeer Ahmed, after the Passco Staff Union wrote a couple of letters to the prime minister complaining about 50 recruitments made by Ahmed in May.



The officials were hired while the interim government was in place, which went against its mandate. The recruitments also did not meet the quota policy for promotion of serving employees, the union said.

Of the 50 recruits, 24 were put in officer posts, including a deputy general manager in BS-19, eight project managers in BS-18, four deputy project managers in BS-17, and the rest in BS-16.

Seven of these were retired army men – five lieutenant colonels and two majors – who were offered much better pay than their civilian counterparts, according to their salary slips, available with The Express Tribune. It was also alleged that the questions in the test given to candidates at the time of recruitment had been leaked.

Rana Latafat, the president of the Passco Staff Union, said that an inquiry into the recruitment process “hung in the balance”.

The inquiry committee was set up by the previous managing director.

Qasim Tarar, the union’s general secretary, said that the prime minister should quickly post a new managing director to ease the anxiety of Passco employees.

Passco Public Relations Officer Waqar Haider refused to comment.

An Establishment Division official said a new managing director would be appointed “soon”, but did not specify when.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 16^th, 2013.