Operational problems: Affiliate dept draining IT ministry, says Anusha

Says Special Communications Organisation gets lion’s share of the ministry’s budget.

ISLAMABAD:

The Special Communications Organisation, one of 10 departments affiliated with the information technology ministry, has been taking the lion’s share of the ministry’s budget every year, a Senate panel was informed on Tuesday.

The IT ministry itself has no representation in the SCO board and is unaware of how the department functions, according to Anusha Rehman, a junior minister who is in charge of information technology.

Rehman briefed the Senate Standing Committee on Information Technology on Tuesday.

The SCO is a public sector organisation which gets 75 per cent of the ministry budget, around Rs3 billion, in order to operate and maintain telecom services in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), and Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B).



The SCO is headed by a [military] general and the General Headquarters (GHQ) handles its affairs.

According to details, Rs2.77 billion were earmarked in the budget for 2013-14 including Rs376.548 million for developments and Rs2.399 billion for operations.

The revelation by the minister prompted members of the committee, which held its first ever meeting, to demand a special session on the SCO with questions over why the SCO was operating under the IT ministry and being funded since 2006.

Revelations

Rehman further revealed that two other departments – Pakistan Computer Bureau (PCB) and Electronic Government Directorate (EGD) – were ‘a black stigma on the ministry’.

“Some 23 projects [of these departments] were started in 2003 which were never completed,” the minister said, adding that since 2004, projects were being extended every year.

“We are going to seek a formal request from the PM for an inquiry and send details of financial irregularities to NAB and FIA for investigations,” she said.

Meanwhile, IT Secretary Akhlaq Tarar also told the committee that Telephone Industry of Pakistan (TIP) had become non-functional and was a sick unit.

“People are getting salaries for doing nothing, and its privatisation is on cards,” he said.

Talking about 3G spectrum, Rehman said that the auction process will be completed by the end of March.

Rehman further said that the ministry was going to set up three IT parks in the country. The first would be set up in Islamabad’s Chak Shehzad area and for that matter World Bank had approved a $45 million loan.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 22^nd, 2014.