Majority public sector entities without CEOs

ISLAMABAD: Most of state-owned entities in industrial and manufacturing sectors are working without permanent chief executive officers.

Official documents and interviews with top bureaucrats in the background discussions confirm that there are a total of 36 entities working under the Ministry of Industries and Production. Of them, 29 work without permanent heads.

Top official circles cite different reasons for inability to fix the entities. Frequent changes in portfolios of ministers are the main problem in restructuring or finding out permanent heads.

Three years have passed without much work to overhaul the cash-bleeding power sector. There are over 200 PSEs working under different ministries/divisions and the sector is facing revenue deficit. The accumulated net losses of PSEs stood at Rs143 billion for 2018-19 fiscal and afterwards no official reports are available in this regard. In 2017-18, net losses had touched Rs286 billion mark.

Though the government made different plans to fix the problem in the last three years, it failed to implement any of them. Overhaul of the entities in last three-year rule of the PTI remained a non-starter, as the overall financial losses continue to haunt economic manages but the government has failed to come up with a permanent solution.

Initially, the government regime had made plans to overhaul the entities through the public-private partnership under former finance minister Asad Umar by establishing Sarmaya-e-Pakistan Limited (SPL) but it lost its steam after the minister’s acquittal.

Now official sources confirm that the Ministry of Industries and Production is left with no option but to give ad hoc charge to every joint secretary to oversee five to six entities located in different parts of the country while sitting in the federal capital.

There are no permanent CEOs in National Fertilizer Company (NFC), Heavy Electrical Complex (HEC), Export Processing Zone Authority (EPZA), Technology Upgradation and Skill Development Company (TUSDEC), National Industrial Parks Development and Management Company (NIP), Pakistan Hunting and Sporting Arms Development Company (PHSADC), Furniture Pakistan, Gujranwala Tools, Dies and Moulds Centre.

There are reports of alleged corruption in National Fertilizer Marketing Limited (NFML), Ceramics Development and Training Complex (CDTC). In the case of Utility Stores Corporation (USC), there is no permanent head but the official circles claim that someone has been selected and he may join soon. There is no permanent chairman of State Engineering Corporation (SEC).

The post of CEO for Pakistan Gems and Jewellery Development Company (PGJDC) was advertised again and again. There is also no CEO for Heavy Electrical Complex (HEC).

When this scribe had sent out a question to the spokesman for the Ministry of Industries and Production last month and asked about reasons for having no permanent CEOs in the entities concerned, he stated that in 1974, the nationalization programme had placed numerous Industries under the administrative control of the Ministry of Industries and Production. However, it may be noted that now most of them are defunct and some are under consideration for privatisation and some are being merged or restructured

Furthermore, only six attached departments/organizations come under the administrative supervision of the ministry. First is Engineering Development Board. Its chairman and CEO are in place and fully functional.

Second is Small and Medium Enterprises Authority and it is fully functional under its chairman and CEO. National Productivity Organization is third and functional under a board and CEO.

Fourth is Utility Store Cooperation. Formal approval of appointment of a new CEO has been approved by the cabinet. New CEO will join in the next 15 days. National Infrastructure Parks Development & Management Company NIP: NIP & PIDC will be merged. Currently a single CEO is looking after the matters

Export Processing Zone Authority is the sixth and last one. Candidates have been shortlisted. Interviews will be conducted by next week.

Moreover, PECO, PSM, HEC, NFML and a few other entities are on the privatisation list. Some are undergoing reorganisation through mergers. So meanwhile, in the transition period, ministry officials have been given acting charge.

When contacted outgoing Minister of State for Institutional Reforms Dr Ishrat Hussain, who had tendered his resignation while giving a one-month notice, said that frequent changes in portfolios of ministers had resulted into missing the envisaged deadlines for restructuring/merger and appointments of permanent chief executive officers of different public sector entities. Now new deadlines have been set in consultation with the installed Minister for Industries and it is hoped that the entities would get permanent heads or their merger would be accomplished without wasting further time.