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Thursday March 28, 2024

Audit dept notes irregular higher slot hiring in OGDCL

By Khalid Mustafa
December 10, 2022

ISLAMABAD: The audit department has questioned the management of the Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDCL) over the appointment to the post of Executive Director Joint Ventures (ED JV), noting the selected official does not fulfill the criterion given in the advertisement and the HR policy of the organization.

According to the official documents available with The News, the OGDCL audit department noted during the audit of the company for 2021-22 that the management appointed Atif Ghafoor as the executive director (Joint Ventures) on March 4, 2022, ignoring advertised condition of the post-qualification experience of 18 years.

At the time of appointment, Atif Ghafoor had post qualification of 16 years five months, and seven days as he passed his MBA from the University of Edinburgh (UK) on January 28, 2005. His bachelor degree in Electrical Engineering was also not relevant to the advertised qualification. The management also did not collect an equivalence certificate from Higher Education Commission (HEC).

As per the document, the audit department reported the appointment issue to the management in September 2022, but the latter did not respond. The audit department advised the management to justify the irregular appointments and act against the person at fault.

According to the advertisement for the appointment, the require qualification was BE or BSc Engineering in petroleum, mechanical or chemical disciplines or master’s degree in earth science, business administration or chartered accountancy. Furthermore, 18-year progressively responsible professional post-qualification experience (articleship for CA) in a leading company with board-based knowledge, including at least seven-years experience in a senior management position was also required.

However, the person appointed as ED JV even after being evaluated on the basis of an MBA degree does not fulfill the minimum experience requirement of 18 years. His experience of 16 years and five months from the day he obtained his degree in 2005 is 1.5 years less than the required experience, showing ambiguities in the recruitment.

When this correspondent sent a question to Atif Ghafoor, he said: “I am in a meeting. However, the audit report is factually incorrect, and the company will respond accordingly if needed. Please contact company spokesperson.” The question sent to Mr Atif Ghafoor included the details mentioned above. Earlier, this correspondent also contacted the OGDCL spokesperson many times, but even after the lapse of three days, he did not respond. This correspondent had sent him six questions detailing the objections raised by the audit department.