ISLAMABAD: The Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDC) has terminated the employment contract of its executive director (Human Resources) following the initiation of an inquiry by the National Accountability Bureau against the alleged illegal appointments at executive management level in OGDC.
According to the office memorandum issued by OGDC, the contract employment of Human Resources ED Muhammad Shoaib Baig has been terminated with immediate effect and in accordance with clause 1.8 of the appointment letter.
“This memorandum has been issued with the approval of OGDC managing director/CEO,” it added.
Although OGDC has sacked its HR executive director, the employment contract of ED (Petroserv) has been not terminated despite his appointment also being controversial.
Sources privy to the matter claimed that the termination of ED (Petrsoerv) is likely in the near future and the necessary process in this regard has already been initiated. “As the OGDCL MD is out of the country to attend a conference, termination letter of ED (Petrsorv) will be issued upon his return,” they added.
However, sources also alleged that some board members of OGDC were still not in favour of terminating the employment contract of ED (Petroserv) Amir Saleem.
Earlier, NAB Rawalpindi had summoned the top OGDC management, including MD/CEO and board members, to investigate the alleged illegal appointments at the company’s executive management level. However, the top management of OGDC failed to satisfy the NAB regarding the appointment of top officials mainly because they could not answer the questions raised by NAB regarding certain changes in the qualification criterion for the appointment of the said top officials.
According to the sources, the OGDC Board, in 2015, had made certain changes in the qualification criterion for the important positions of executive director, general manager (GM) and manager.
The board, in its decision, had changed the required experience criterion from 26 years to 18 years for the post of ED; the experience criterion for GM was changed from 24 years to 16 years, while that for the manager was changed from 20 years to 14 years.
Sources had claimed that OGDC Board Chairman Qamar Javed and some board members were allegedly involved in the appointment of two EDs (HR & Petroserv), who previously worked with a foreign company that provided services to OGDC.
