Petroleum Division rebuts article

ISLAMABAD: The Petroleum Division has rebutted an article titled "Investigate the Petroleum Losses" published in 'The News' on Saturday.

In a statement, the Petroleum Division said that "the article is misleading & full of factual errors and seems to target senior officials of the Ministry based on some false assumptions showing lack of understanding of corporate governance environment in the country,” says press release issued by the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum Division.

First, the article appreciates the decision of the government to conduct forensic audit of the recent petrol shortage. But surprisingly without waiting for the outcome of the audit, the writer latches on to the persona of the Secretary Petroleum by falsely claiming that the losses sustained by OGDCL and PPL are due to the “incompetence” of the secretary.

The writer should better be informed that both companies have earned billions of rupees worth of profit in the last financial year, in addition to contributing significantly through GST, levies and CSR activities. Secondly, the writer wrongfully ascribes imaginary losses of these companies due to appointment of the boards of directors.

He fallaciously states that the boards of these companies were “appointed based on favouritism and nepotism”. The facts are that the Petroleum Division is the first government body which reconstituted all BODs well in time but also made sure best available professionals are picked up from the database of Pakistan Institute of Corporate Governance in line with SECP rules and regulations.

The Division nominated women of substance as Board members and currently three women of outstanding calibre are the chairpersons of SSGC, SNGPL and GHPL.

Thirdly, the writer levels allegation against Ministry officials for being over represented on the boards and are taking huge benefits. The fact is companies board also include senior officers from ministries of Finance, Power and Commerce & all these members are receiving Board fees after attending each meeting. The amount of the fee mentioned in the Article is highly exaggerated.

Fourthly, the writer said that secretary being PARCO chairman was “fining himself” when OMCs were being alleged for petrol shortage, it must be known that as per corporate governance rules the Board of Directors or the Chairman cannot be held responsible for any ostensible faulty decision of the management. Anyone with a rudimentary understanding of corporate governance rules will know the difference between the roles and responsibilities of the BOD and the MD of a company.

Fifthly, the writer goes on to falsely claim that the Petroleum Division has not been able to appoint regular MDs in the past three years. The fact is that except PPL all companies under PD have full time regular MDs. In case of PPL, the panel of candidates is under consideration at the PM Office for necessary clearance and the matter will be placed before the Federal Cabinet shortly.

Lastly, the learned writer has shown his complete lack of knowledge by claiming that UFG rate has gone up and that no new bidding rounds have been initiated.

The fact is, in the last two years the UFG rate of SNGPL has gone down to 8% from a whopping 13%. In case of SSGC, the gas theft in Balochistan is a major factor for UFG yet the overall figure for the whole franchise area is showing some reduction. Similarly, the PD managed to initiate two bidding rounds in December 2018 and January 2021. It is further to be noted that not a single round was offered during the five years of the previous government.

While the PD encourages constructive criticism to further improve its performance, it also expects that any criticism must be shun falsehood and should not be based on completely wrong and misleading information."