6,000 officers jump in to save Pak Steel
March 21, 2011In a memorandum sent by their officially recognized association, ‘Voice of Pakistan Steel Officers’, these officers say they are important stakeholders in PSM and have its welfare foremost at heart. “We dare say that you, being the principal account officer of the very Ministry which controls the PSM are well aware of the present dismal state of affairs at the Mills,” they said in the memo addressed to the Secretary Ministry of Industries and Production, titled ‘The imperatives to save PSM from imminent collapse’.
The officers pointed out that the present government had not only failed to appoint any suitable individual of competence as Chairman/CEO of PSM, but it has also failed to place men of integrity at its helm.
The memo said the down turn at PSM started soon after the posting of Mueen Aftab Shaikh, a retired grade 22 officer, as Chairman. “When he assumed charge on 28-5-2008, PSM had Rs11 billion cash deposits with the banks and Rs12 billion inventories of raw material and finished goods.
“It will be seen that during the period from July 2000 to June 2008, after fulfilling all the financial commitments, PSM’s accumulated profit was Rs10.4 billion. Whereas the audited accounts of PSM for financial year 2008-09 show a loss of Rs28.960 billion.
“The provisional loss in the year 2009-10 is Rs13 billion, and approximately Rs6 billion in the year 2010-11 (July -December 2010). Thus, in a period of 30 months, PSM’s total equity has been wiped out and it has suffered a loss of more than Rs48 billion, and its immediate and deferred payment debt liability is more than Rs50 billion. Hence, today, PSM is burdened with a total loss of more than Rs98 billion.”
It says: “This woeful state of affairs has been caused by successive managements, during May 2008 to-date, with no appropriate professional technical and commercial background to run the PSM appointed by the government. Moreover, these managements did not work unfettered and independently.”
The officers alleged that the managements of Mueen Aftab Sheikh, MM Usmani and Fazlullah Qureshi were under the influence of Abbas Steel Group, Lucky Star of Multan and CBA Peoples Workers Union Chairman, Shamshad Qureshi. These managements and Shamshad Qureshi were hand in glove with unscrupulous suppliers, dealers and contractors to bleed PSM dry for their own illegal gain. The losers were the taxpayer, the employees, and bonafide suppliers, dealers and contractors.”
The officers regretted that the Ministry of Industries and Production, which was required to monitor the performance of the PSM management, remained a distant and silent spectator whilst the Mills was being looted.
The Auditor General of Pakistan was asked in July 2008 to carry out the audit of PSM. They sent 73 audit observations relating to irregularities of approximately Rs39 billion to the Management of Mueen Aftab Shaikh, but the answers were not convincing and satisfactory.
They said the SC had been told that the loss in PSM in 2008-09 was Rs22 billion as against the audited account of Rs29 billion. “Since then, this loss has increased. The total loss during the period: July 2008 to December 2010 (30 months) amounts to Rs48 billion and a further debt liability of more than Rs50 billion. “Today, in spite of the passage of 16 months no meaningful progress has been made in the case. The real culprits have not been nabbed and their business with PSM is as usual. On the contrary, PSM is protecting these very wrongdoers and unscrupulous elements. It has not provided the court any evidence of their wrongdoing and is protecting them by engaging prominent advocates at exorbitant fee, who, to protect the very individuals who have robbed PSM, have introduced the ingenious concept of “Forensic Auditing”.
Other actions have been taken to the detriment of PSM. Concessionary SROs No. 450 (1) dated 18-6-2001, 565 (1) 2006, 371 (1) and 569 respectively, which are beneficial for some individual consumers are causing loss to PSM. The present ad hoc management has not rationalized the prices of PSM products comparing with landed cost of similar imported material and cost of production of its products produced from July 2010 to January 2011, benefiting, without any fear of accountability, to unscrupulous dealers, against some of whom FIRs have been registered by the FIA) to the tune of more than Rs1.5 billion of causing loss to PSM and national exchequer.
Posted by Muhammad Navaid akhter.
