FAISALABAD: A three-and-a-half-month tussle between the Solid Waste Management Company (SWMC) board of directors and its Managing Director (MD), Amjad Awan, ended on Tuesday with the latter tendering his resignation.

Awan was allegedly not performing his duty and was away from office since February after a heated argument with the board of directors chairman MNA Rana Afzal, who had also issued Awan a show-cause notice and suspended him from service.

Awan told Dawn he had resigned “to save the company”. Currently, Dawood Makki, a manager, was holding additional charge of the MD.

Sources said a tussle with Awan had cropped up when the board of directors tried to get a hold on procurement and recruitments. The MD had resisted, saying it was not the board’s domain and the members must remain in their limits. They claimed the board members had curtailed purchasing power of the MD from Rs20m to Rs1m only. Company accounts had become non-functional and were suspended as Awan was the sole signatory.

The sources said the board head could not use the company property as per law, while Afzal had been occupying the premises. As per law, the sources said, no private member could hold executive powers such as recruitment, while Afzal had allegedly assigned all such powers to MPA Fakir Husain Dogar.

The issue was taken up with MNA Hamza Shahbaz on Feb 21 in Lahore. On being informed of the meeting, Afzal had sent a letter to Hamza on March 12 mentioning that Makki was holding additional charge of the MD and the company’s performance was satisfactory, if not improved.

After the company’s bank accounts were suspended, the board had allowed Makki or Rizwan Ashraf, president of the Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industries, to act as co-signatory, Afzal mentioned in the letter.

He further wrote that Awan, who had not submitted his reply to the show-cause notice, had been given one more week for the purpose. Awan was also not allowed to use company property, including car and driver, but he had been doing so since Feb 14, Afzal added.

He said the internal auditors who started working from Feb 1 were coming up with alarming revelations of violations of financial and Public Procurement Regulatory Authority rules where at least six or more cases needed fresh show-cause notices to be issued to Awan and the financial team.

Quoting examples in the letter, Afzal said in one month Rs1.5m had been withdrawn from the company accounts as temporary advance and adjusted in violation of PPRA rules and without deduction of mandatory tax.

In one case, batteries had been purchased on April 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9 and 10, 2014, worth Rs700,000, no tax deducted, PPRA rules violated, and Awan had given approval of this purchase. He said furniture for the MD office had been purchased on April 22 last year worth Rs180,000 and except an unnumbered invoice no document corroborated this.

Talking to Dawn, Awan said he had tendered his resignation to avoid further damage to the company. He said it was the responsibility of the government to clearly define powers of board members as well as the MD however nothing had been done.

“I fought for the vision of the chief minister to make the company excellent, however, politicians intervened even in minor affairs,” he claimed.

He said a considerable amount from the company had been saved that was being spent on ghost employees. A number of employees serving at houses of politicians had been called back and deputed in different localities, he claimed.

“I have done nothing wrong and the company has zero audit-para,” Awan added.

Talking to Dawn, MNA Rana Afzal said he had suspended the MD as per law and that MPA Fakir Husain Dogar could not recruit anyone independently. He said Dogar would have to send his recommendations to the company MD that would then be put up before the board for a final approval.

“I am performing my duty as chairman following the prescribed law,” he said.

Published in Dawn, May 20th, 2015

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