Tussle hits Punjab’s bid to raise funds
DCO Naseem Saddiq, whose role is pivotal in the ongoing privatisation campaign, is learnt to have flatly refused to help the board citing “personal reasons”, a relevant official told this correspondent.
Saddiq is learnt to have refused to assist the PPB during a meeting held for finalising details of the bidding process. The meeting, chaired by the provincial chief secretary, was also attended by commissioners of several districts.
The drive to dispose of all urban and rural surplus assets was launched at the behest of Punjab Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif to bail the provincial government out of an acute financial crisis, he said.
Since November 2009, more than 1,400 properties – commercial, residential and agricultural – had been identified by the Punjab government. Their cumulative sales were projected to fetch more than Rs12 billion.
The PPB was entrusted the auction process after the promulgation of the Punjab Privatisation Board Act of 2010.
Under the act, the actual privatisation of public assets was to be carried out by three official bodies, namely provincial, regional and district privatisation committees.
The Faisalabad revenue office had identified as many as 15 commercial properties suitable for privatisation, tentatively worth more than Rs5 billion.
Private evaluators hired by the PPB and the District Price Assessment Committee separately carried out an assessment to help fix the base price to streamline the open auction process.
The DCO, in addition to being the head of the revenue department at district level, is also responsible for clearing litigation of marked properties, planning, publicising and supervising the auction process to ensure bidding on merit.
The DCO, being head of the district privatisation committee and member of the regional privatisation committee and the committee at the headquarters, plays a vital role in disposing surplus public assets.
The DCO’s refusal is likely to dent the privatisation process, damaging the provincial government’s credibility and its good governance efforts, a PPB official told this correspondent on condition of anonymity.
Nazar Muhammad Chohan, the PPB chairman, said: “The privatisation process will come to a grinding halt because the DCO plays a pivotal role in fair and transparent auction of public properties. The refusal on the part of the DCO will hinder the government’s efforts to earn through the privatisation process.”
Since the start of the process, he said, the PPB has successfully auctioned redundant properties worth Rs3 billion.
Naseem Saddiq, the Faisalabad DCO, did not respond to repeated attempts to contact him for comment. His personal assistant told this correspondent several times that the DCO was in a meeting.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 6th, 2010.
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