Apathy of the government along with mismanagement of the Board of Directors is continued at National ICT R&D Fund for the last one year as the operations of this organization has been seriously impacted and its projects and programs are standstill.
Some of key reasons informed sources to Telecom Recorder on condition of anonymity are non-availability of a regular full-time CEO since June 2012 when Dr. Aun Abbas resigned due to undue pressures from the then Secretary IT (Farooq Awan).
The GM Coordination (Muhammad Ahmed) was then nominated by Farooq Awan to be the interim CEO knowing well enough that he has a poor track record. Apparently this was done to get things done the way according to the whims of Farooq Awan from this Company. It is to be noted that Muhemmed Ahmed does not fulfill the required educational criteria and experience of being a GM, let alone a CEO for such an important organization.
Other issues include the presence of individuals in key positions who have been placed there without having the requisite clearances from their parent departments of possessing minimum educational qualifications or experience for their respective positions.
They include CFO (Sardar Azmat Shafi), Internal Auditor (Omar Safdar Sandhu), and Acting Company Secretary (Nelofar Arshad). The hiring process of all these individuals and their educational credentials and background are at best dubious.
This group of individuals along with silent support from some Board members seems to have hijacked the Company and blocked the hiring of a full-time CEO (Dr. Ashraf Masood) and Company Secretary. They have changed around the work procedures of the Company for their own and possibly certain others’ benefit, created unwanted bureaucracy along with delays. They have already started violating the laid down policies and procedures. Such malpractices are sure to bring a bad name to the Company if such practices are not stopped.
With so many top slots filled in this company by ill-intention cronies of previous government, it is high time that finally the newly elected democratic government looks into this matter, gets rid of these politically appointed individuals, cleans up the overall state of affairs in this Company and appoints highly qualified and well-reputed professionals on merit for key positions so this important asset of the country may play its role for advancement of ICT sector in the country.
The new government should also take a look into other organizations, associated with Ministry of IT & Telecom, as well where stories of politically motivated appointments in direct violation of any merit and procedures and abuse of power abound. The recent public announcements, by the newly elected government, related to hiring for key position in important organizations on merit only can only be considered to be a serious commitment to the citizens of this country once backed-up by specific, concrete, prompt, and just actions!
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