Short-staffed EDB continues to default on its mandate

ISLAMABAD: Engineering Development Board (EDB) has so far failed to deliver on its mandate owing to different incapacities as out of total 105 sanctioned posts 32 are lying vacant at the moment, sources said on Saturday.

“There is need to bring a paradigm shift in EDB by devising clear cut KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) otherwise this organisation will continue as part of another layer for creating another bureaucratic structure meant for minting money and issuing certificates to manufacturers without implementing localisation and deletion programmes” a top official told The News.

In one of the presentations prepared by the government it was stated there was need to strengthen EDB by fresh recruitments against sanctioned posts.

According to the details, there are D-II posts of General Mangers (GM) into EDB and at the moment all posts in this category are filled.

There are six sanctioned posts of D-III of GM and only three posts are filled at the moment and three are vacant.

There are eight posts of Deputy General Managers in EDB out of which 2 posts are filled and remaining 6 are vacant. There are nine posts of Managers out of which 3 posts are filled and 6 are vacant.

There are seven posts of deputy managers and all posts are filled in EDB. There are 19 posts of Assistant Managers in EDB out of which nine are filled and 10 are vacant.

There are six posts of junior executive out of which three posts are filled and three are vacant. There are total 57 sanctioned posts out of which 27 are filled and 30 are vacant.

There are total 48 Non Executive posts in EDB out of which 46 are filled and two are vacant. In totality, there are 105 sanctioned posts in EDB out of which 73 are filled and 32 are vacant.

It was also suggested to the government to revamp EDB’s Board of Management by increasing representation of various engineering sectors.

The EDB was established in 1995 under Cabinet Decision case No. 193/10/95 dated 15.05.1995, Notified by M/o Planning & Development vide Gazette of Pakistan No: 4 (37) PD/I&A/95 dated 4/10/95. There is mandate of EDB to develop a long-term vision for the development of the engineering, formulate and coordinate all government policies relating to the engineering, develop an overall strategic engineering development plan, promotion of export, enhancement of technical training, formulate policies and guidelines for utilisation of technology development and engineering funds appeal for grievances and management of deletion/ indigenisation policy.

The EDB’s Board of Management was approved by the federal cabinet and notified by the Ministry of Industries and Production under the chairmanship of Almas Hyder and private sector members are also included into it. However, the performance of EDB could not be improved up to the desired mark.