COMMENT
Culture is a reflection of the collective arts and crafts, customs and traditions, language, music, and other expressions of academic, economic and social behaviour of a people. In Pakistan, there is a dearth of platforms that provide a comprehensive outlook of the culture of our society. Lok Virsa is one such place where people can access this information, especially those who have had no exposure to the various shades of our pluralism.
However, recently, the organisation has been embroiled in controversy since a committee, constituted by the Ministry of Information declared contracts made by Lok Virsa in 2004 with a company called Cosmos, one sided. It has been alleged that 15 contracts were awarded to various companies working under Cosmos, which inflicted losses worth millions of rupees on the state owned entity. The company was invited for a public-private partnership. It was owned by a Senator of Pakistan People’s Party, Rubina Khalid and her late husband Rauf Khalid, and recently it has been transferred to their children Sidra Khalid and Hassan Khalid.
The committee alleged that the 15 ancillary contracts were awarded illegally to Cosmos. Those included outsourcing the two museums, craft bazaar, sales centre, publishing house, Lok Virsa archives, media studios and rights to producing audio and video materials. The two open air theatres and the premises of Lok Virsa were also handed over to them to rent out. The staff of Lok Virsa had practically nothing to do other than a few programmes.
Even organising the annual festival was given to Cosmos for a few years, for which the management of Lok Virsa paid an amount of Rs3.8 million to Cosmos. That the committee found was in violation of the provisions of the agreement that excluded Lok Virsa from bearing any expenditure for the said purpose.
In addition, two pieces of land were given to them; one to build a museum cafeteria, on which they built a Virsa Café, a totally commercial venture, and on the other (3,025 yards) a Cultural Institute for students. This was also a money making venture where funding was sought from various donors, and groups of students from FATA and other places were taught hotel management, fashion design, etc. After five years the contracts that were expiring were extended by the then executive director Mazhar ul Islam.
After the next five years, in 2014, the then executive director took back all the assets of Lok Virsa but the two main money making ventures, the Virsa Café and the National Institute of Cultural Studies (NICS), which remained with Cosmos. In addition, a row of rooms, where the Senator’s family business extended to selling dahi bhalla, chaat, and drinks continued.
Audit reports are full of paragraphs against the contracts with Cosmos for over ten years. Due to consistent audit objections five paragraphs were put forward to the Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly. Khursheed Shad from Pakistan People’s Party heads the committee. For some reason the issue kept being differed.
The inquiries of the committee lasted almost one year and its findings recommend that these contracts were illegal and should be terminated. The committee provided the chance to all the relevant parties to put their point of view forward.
Findings of the committee also claimed that the various contracts to M/s Cosmos Productions Pvt Limited by the then executive director were legally and financially inappropriate. Further, it states that the approval of board of governors of Lok Virsa was not sought for the policy decision. In addition, contracting out for outsourcing/entering into joint venture and collaborations as required under clause 3(2)(V) of Lok Virsa BOG resolution, dated March 19, 2013 was not followed.
The bidding documents neither included a reference to the establishment of Virsa College of Arts, nor were the bidders evaluated against this requirement, the committee claimed in its report.
Holding the then executive director accountable, the committee said he signed an ancillary agreement with M/s Cosmos Production (Pvt) Limited for establishing a profit-oriented and commercially operated Virsa College over 11,000 square feet (later changed to 27,200 square feet of the land) inside the Lok Virsa Complex. However, no amount has been paid to Lok Virsa by Cosmos as share of profit or a percentage of the fee charged from the students.
A competitive bidding process was not followed and the existing agreements were changed by inclusion of a range of new items of the work. The findings of the committee also allege that the rental agreement for Cosmos Office and NICS Administration Block were signed by a Deputy Director of Lok Virsa, who was not competent to execute the agreement, whereas no approval by the BOG was accorded for the said agreement.
As per the audit report of Accountant General Pakistan Revenues (AGPR), the umbrella agreement and fifteen ancillary agreements were to expire on July 21, 2009 after completion of five years, but the scope of work under three sub agreements was drastically enhanced on several occasions and further agreements were executed, which were extended from time to time without the approval of BOGs of Lok Virsa or any performance evaluation, particularly when the firm was persistently defaulting in payments of dues stipulated in the agreements.
The report recommends that these illegal contracts should be terminated by the Lok Virsa management. It places the responsibility of committing the illegal act on the two executive directors responsible for giving out the contracts in 2004 and extending the contracts in 2009. It considers Cosmos a defaulter.
Currently the rent for the Virsa Café is about Rs40,000 per month, however it started out at Rs25,000 raised 10 percent after every 3 years. This is much below the market rate. Cosmos owes over Rs10 billion to Lok Virsa. In addition, it never paid a penny for the 3,025 yards of land it took from 2004 onwards.
While Lok Virsa continues its cultural revival and tries to clean out the past mess, any decision of the BOG seems to get undermined by the larger system, which supports the status quo. The BOG decided and instructed the Lok Virsa management to empty out the row of rooms Cosmos had taken over without any permission or contract. When approached, they denied that the dahi bhalla shops were theirs. When the rooms were emptied, Cosmos filed FIRs on the management and pursued a court case.
The new Executive Director, Dr Fouzia Saeed, with her background of culture and activism combined, not only moved the programmes along but also started a cleanup operation to revive the institution. Major governance issues were addressed. There was no board of governors for over two years, which the ministry constituted in mid 2015.
The Executive Director drafted the rules that were not made for the last 13 years, policies procedures were put in place. This at times can be challenging as the old employees are used to old habits. In Lok Virsa’s case there were reactions also. Former employees went to court for not getting extensions on their temporary contracts, for not being considered for promotions or for pay raises and more benefits on their jobs. The management seemed pretty adamant to clean out the past practices of hiring their own children into the organisation through the back door and giving salary raises without the permission of the board.
Now, the eyes are on the new management. Will the rejuvenation of the programmatic direction, strengthening Lok Virsa’s governance and taking the institution to an international level be enough for the current management or will it take on the big mafia that invariably eats up our government institutions.
The writer is a staff member
