Senate panel seeks govt oversight of money-making NTS

ISLAMABAD: The Senate Committee on Science and Technology was shocked to learn on Thursday that the National Testing Service (NTS) that collected Rs1.1 billion revenue last year was managed by only five employees of the Comsats Institute of Information Technology (CIIT) without any government oversight.
The committee meeting, chaired by Senator Osman Saifullah Khan, was briefed by the CEO of NTS and CIIT Rector Dr Junaid Zaidi about the functioning of the testing service.
The committee noted that the five founding members of the company originally included the present CEO and Rector CIIT and two other individuals Tahir Khakwani and Rizwan Tauqeer.
The committee was told that in 2014 the company’s ownership was transferred to the CIIT under a change in the company’s memorandum of association.
The NTS earned a profit of Rs272 million last year, while the company earned nothing in 2013 when it collected a revenue of Rs191 million, according to an account statement of the NTS presented before the committee.
Shockingly, the revenue of the NTS was zero in 2012 according to the statement of accounts.
The company was established in 2003 to provide a testing service for students and employees of public and private organisations.
Osman Saifullah was not satisfied with the answers of the NTS management and asked the Ministry of Science and Technology to ensure a proper oversight of such a profitable organisation.
The chairman was surprised to know that the NTS received Rs598 million from an anonymous member in 2013 under the head “additional members subscription” but none of its member Board of Directors (BOD) know about the contributor.
The committee recommended that the board of directors should have at least seven directors belonging to institutions other than the Comsats.
“The directors should be of an independent mind. Additionally, it is for the government to decide who the members of the organisation should be, whether the NTS should continue to be Comsats-controlled, or other public sector universities should be involved in the control of NTS, so that it becomes a true national testing service.
“I asked the NTS management to explain who contributed this huge amount to the company. However, none of the BOD members knew about the source of money,” Senator Osman told The News.
He said the committee had sought a detailed reply from the NTS about the anonymous donor.
“We have also asked them to present a detailed report on the functioning and oversight of the NTS within a month,” he said, adding that the Senate committee had received a large number of public complaints about irregularities in the NTS and the high fee charged by the company.
The committee also asked the Higher Education Commission (HEC) through the Minister of Science and Technology to implement a decision of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on preparing regulatory framework for the testing bodies.
Senator Aitzaz Ahsan raised serious questions about transparency in the NTS affairs and asked how such a huge organisation could assure quality of services.
Earlier, the committee looked into the performance of NTS and its ownership. It was told that under the Articles of Association of NTS, the management of the organisation’s affairs was the responsibility of the Board of Directors (BOD) of the company and the members of the company elect the board.
According to the information provided to the Senate body by the SECP, on February 8, 2014 the Articles of Association were amended so that at least five members of NTS shall be nominees of Comsats.
This was around two weeks after the date of hearing of the case against the NTS in the LHC.
There is a Board of Governors of NTS, but the legal responsibility for management of affairs of NTS lies with the board of directors.
The committee noted that the NTS management did not provide it with details of the 2012 accounts while the 2013 accounts were provided twice. The NTS management told the Senate body that test fee receipts had increased to Rs1.1 billion in 2014 from Rs191 million (19 crore) in 2013.
Salaries and wages have increased from Rs17 million to Rs91 million. The net surplus for the year was Rs270 million.
“It is clear that the fee being charged is more than to cover the operating costs of NTS. This surplus is invested in TDRs of Allied Bank (Rs236 million), an additional Rs55 million in fixed deposits of ABL and there is an additional Rs320 million cash and bank balances,” the chairman said.
He noted that Article 63 part (viii) does allow investment in scheduled banks.
The committee was told that in 2014 an amount of Rs81 million was set aside as reserve for repair and maintenance of building and equipment and Rs136 million for scholarships of students. “But it is not clear how many scholarships had been given and of what monetary amount? No scholarship expense appears in the financial statements?” the chairman noted.
The committee strongly recommended that there should be at least a cut of 20 percent in fees being charged by the company.
Moreover, the chair asked for shunning multiple tests on a single day, being humanly almost impossible for a candidate to appear in more than one test in a day held in different cities.
As the committee ended the meeting, a student approached the panel Chairman Osman Saifullah Khan in the corridor and pointed out the holding of multiple tests by NTS.
The committee members who attended the proceedings included Aitzaz Ahsan, Muhammad Azam Swati, Prof. Sajid Mir and Haji Momin Khan Afridi.