State-owned enterprises: Dar interviews shortlisted candidates for CEO slots in financial institutions

Names for HBFC, NIT and First Women Bank will be finalised next week.

ISLAMABAD:

Amid growing criticism of its inability to appoint permanent heads of more than two dozen state-owned enterprises, the federal government on Saturday conducted interviews of shortlisted candidates for vacant slots of chief executive officers (CEOs) in three financial institutions.

The interviews for appointing CEOs in House Building Finance Corporation (HBFC), National Investment Trust (NIT) and First Women Bank Limited (FWBL) were held at the Ministry of Finance.

A four-member committee headed by Federal Finance Minister Ishaq Dar interviewed the candidates, according to an official handout. The other three members were Finance Secretary Dr Waqar Masood, Additional Finance Secretary Sharif Akbar Peerzada and Additional Establishment Division Secretary Amjad Mahmood.

Mahmood initially refused to attend the meeting, which was held on a weekly holiday, but came on the insistence of the Ministry of Finance.

The committee was expected to finalise its recommendations next week and send names of a panel against each post to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for taking a decision, said Rana Assad Amin, spokesman for the Ministry of Finance.

Acting heads of HBFC, NIT and FWBL were among the shortlisted candidates that the ministry called for final interviews.

NIT, a company having assets of over Rs56 billion as of December 2013, is headed by Manzoor Ahmad. Charmaine Hidayatullah is the acting CEO of FWBL, an entity that is a partner in the government’s youth loan initiative.

Amin insisted that the absence of a permanent CEO of FWBL would not affect the progress on the loan scheme.

HBFC’s acting CEO is Sayef Hussain, who was appointed by the present government in October last year. The value of HBFC’s assets was Rs19 billion as of June 2011.

According to the officials, there is no guarantee that the acting CEOs will be appointed on a permanent basis.

These institutions are run on an ad hoc basis and facing indiscipline and weak administration due to absence of permanent heads. The government had also appointed a commission to ensure merit and transparency in appointments but things were not progressing as desired by the authorities, said the officials.

The government has been increasingly coming under pressure for its inability to appoint permanent heads of state-owned units. Initially, it delayed the appointments fearing intervention from the superior judiciary, led by former chief justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry – a reason that the finance ministry also conveyed to the International Monetary Fund.

It has recently excluded the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) and Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) from the purview of the commission.

The government would meet all its commitments to the nation by ensuring selection of CEOs on merit, competence and transparency, which was the hallmark of the PML-N leadership, said Finance Minister Dar.

He emphasised that state-owned enterprises, which were not performing up to the mark, would be restructured in a manner to make them efficient and productive.

Owing to the delay in appointment of the board and CEO of Pakistan Steel Mills, the government has so far been unable to finalise its restructuring plan.

Dar hoped that the appointment of CEOs on merit would provide public sector enterprises leadership that could set their direction in terms of performance and delivery. He added that the best among the shortlisted candidates would be recommended for final approval of the prime minister.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 23^rd, 2015.

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