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| UNDP denies role in DTCE CEO resignation |
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Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Ansar Abbasi
ISLAMABAD: United Nations Development Fund (UNDP) — the frontline donor supporting the military government’s devolution plan — was in the picture as to how National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB) Chairman Daniyal Aziz allegedly wanted to divert donors’ funding to his home constituency but apparently, did not raise an objection.
Country Director UNDP Haoliang Xu, however, when contacted said the international agency was here to support development and has no political agenda. He said the agency is concerned about any impression of misuse of donors fund.
When asked about the protest resignation of Chief Executive Officer of the Devolution Trust for Community Empowerment (DTCE), he said the DTCE’s Board of Directors is competent for hiring and firing of DTCE officials and that the UNDP has nothing to do with it.
Although Haoliang denied the NRB chairman conveyed the CEO DTCE to resign through the UNDP, a credible source in the UNDP confirmed the agency was very much involved in the resignation episode.
Haoliang’s deputy Farhan Sabieh, who is directly looking after the DTCE project when asked if he denies that CEO DTCE was conveyed through the UNDP to resign, he said he would neither deny nor confirm it. He asked this correspondent to contact Haoliang on the subject.
As reported in The News, CEO Yusuf Khan tendered his resignation on December 4 after his differences with Daniyal Aziz on the issue of setting up Village & Neighborhood Council (VNC) and their funding.
The Trust after signing MoUs with almost 13 district/tehsil governments was setting up VNCs in one Union Council in each district/tehsil but the NRB chairman wanted 731 VNCs in 35 Union Council of his home district that, too, without the agreement of the Shakargarh tehsil government.
The CEO reportedly did not agree to the chairman’s Shakargarh-centric VNC plan and warned him last month that such an out of way involvement in the upcoming general elections would have a severe negative impact on the good name of DTCE. Later, the CEO was reportedly conveyed through the UNDP to quit or face dismissal, a claim made by Yusuf in his e-mail to Daniyal Aziz, which was published last week.
Daniyal Aziz had, however, termed the CEO’s resignation content as “malicious allegations” against him. Even though Haoliang said the UNDP would see whether everything was done correctly, a source associated with another donor agency — funding the DTCE through the UNDP — revealed to The News that the outgoing CEO DTCE had met the donors before tendering his resignation and told them that the Shakargarh-centric VNCs would spoil the whole project. The CEO, however, could not win the donors support.
It is also confirmed that neither majority of the DTCE’s Board of Directors were consulted to give approval to Daniyal’s idea of establishing 731 VNCs in his home constituency nor were they taken into confidence while removing the CEO. However, a donor source said some of the directors were verbally consulted and at least one — Minister of State for Economic Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar — also confirmed this.
Daniyal Aziz is the chairman of the DTCE’s Board of Directors, whose members include Federal Minister for Tourism Nilofer Bakhtiar; Minister of State for Economic Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar; Minister of State for Economic Affairs Omer Ayub Khan; Executive Director Pakistan Center for Philanthropy Shahnaz Wazir Ali; Director Pakistan Institute of Development Economic Quaid-i-Azam University Dr Nadeem ul Haq; Fareed Rehman and Sardar Wazir Ahmed Jogezai.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
