OGDC causes Rs 13.5m loss to appoint ED Petroserv: AGP

Ibn-e-Ameer

ISLAMABAD: Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDC) management changed criteria to appoint favourite candidate as Executive Director ED (Petroserv). Before his appointment, the OGDCL recruitment committee had disqualified the candidate even for the junior position of General Manager.

The country’s largest oil and gas explorer had appointed a candidate whom the recruitment committee of the company had disqualified even for the post of General Manager drilling.

 The Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) has raised objections to the irregular appointment of executive director (ED) by the Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd (OGDC)’s board of directors (BoD), which causes a loss of Rs13.5 million to the public exchequer.

The audit is of the view that due to undue favour, OGDC had appointed a candidate as Executive Director ED (Petroserv) who could not qualify for the position of general manager. Therefore, the appointment, as well as payment of salary of Rs13.5 million, is irregular.

The Audit Report for the financial year 2019-20 observed that the management floated an advertisement for the post of general manager (Drilling Services), a position under ED (Petroserv), along with other posts including ED (Petroserv), on February 24, 2019.

The management, however, scrapped the recruitment process of GM (Drilling Services) as no candidate had qualified for the said position.

Muhammad Aamir Salim was among the ineligible candidates whom the Recruitment Committee of the company had not recommended due to irrelevant experience.

Similarly, OGDC had not selected any candidate for the post of ED (Petroserv). On June 30, 2019, the management again advertised for the post of ED (Petroserv).

Read More: OGDC makes the successive controversial appointment of ED HR

The previous advertisement required six years of senior management position experience for the position but OGDCL management had not mentioned such conditions in the new advertisement.

Muhammad Aamir Salim applied for the said post and OGDC appointed him as ED (Petroserv) on August 7, 2019.

In the management of the OGDC instead of bringing a policy change in HR, the management of the company only changed the criteria for the appointment of ED (Petroserv) to benefit a specific candidate.

The management of the OGDCL replies that the entire process of recruitment of the ED (Petrosev) was done through the board secretariat.

Read More: PD opposes divestment of OGDC, PPL’s shares