ISLAMABAD: Secretariat of the all-important China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which is considered a game changer for Pakistan and also otherwise tops the list of government’s priorities, is facing severe shortage of human resource and expertise.
Not only that there is no project director for CPEC for the last several months but it is also short of experts and specialists needed to provide required secretariat support. Presently, the CPEC project wing in the Planning Commission comprises hardly a few officers.
Maj Gen ® Dr Zahir Shah, who was the first project director of CPEC, was allowed to leave upon the completion of his two years’ contract in the second half of last year. However, since then this vital project is without a regular project director.
Planning Commission officials confirmed that a replacement of Dr Zahir Shah was found through a recruitment process but despite having been offered the job of project director, the person selected could not stay even for a couple of days and decided to leave.
Since then, the job is being looked after by a deputy director of the planning commission Hassan Daud Butt. Now in this high profile project, a deputy director is acting as project director under whom there is one Gwadar specialist and one media manager- another deputy director.
They are waiting for hiring of energy specialist as the one serving earlier had left too. Another expert, business processes specialist, was hired for the project for some time. The expert worked for a year or so but later neither she was allowed to continue nor her replacement was found.
“Now the project is without the business processes specialist”. Under the project, the Planning Commission sources said, the government was also required to appoint transportation specialist as well as financial analyst in the CPEC project team in the Planning Commission. However, it was also not done.
“We wanted a team of good specialists in the project team to perform and deliver as per the requirement of the project but we were told to hire experts in lower grades,” an insider told this correspondent, lamenting that there was a clear feeling among the project members and staff that the project’s secretariat is not getting the required attention from the government.
In official files and noting, it was underlined that experts in highest government scales should be appointed to get the best talent. However, it was not done.
Additionally, those few including the first project director and some specialists appointed during the initial two years of the project were allowed to go instead of retaining them and taking benefit from their experience.
When contacted, the Deputy Director Media of the CPEC Project said that in this matter Asim Khan Niazi, who is special assistant to Minister Ahsan Iqbal, will speak. Asim Khan, when approached, admitted that the CPEC secretariat is short of required human resource but insisted that because of procedural delays the appointments have been delayed.
Regarding the appointment of Project Director CPEC, Asim Khan said that a person selected for the job despite giving his consent did not join because of personal reason and thus the government has to make a deputy director as acting PD.
He said that the government wants to appoint a new PD but the prevalent procedures cause delays. Asim Khan said that the acting PD possesses background of project management and has also worked as defence attaché in China.
Regarding the appointment of specialists, he said that a few posts of specialists including that of energy specialist would be filled this month. He explained that different sections of the planning commission and its key officials including chief economists and members are closely working with the CPEC secretariat to ensure timely coordination and smooth implementation of the project.
Despite all this, the special assistant acknowledged that the CPEC secretariat requires special focus of the government. He admitted that experts from the private sector are not ready to join the CPEC secretariat on what government offers under the present system.
He said that if you need good people, you have to pay them well. The government scales, he lamented, does not offer much and this has been the basic reason for not getting good people for CPEC secretariat. He added that in view of the importance of this project, the government has to create some exemptions for appointments in CPEC to attract the best people and appoint them in minimum possible time. https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/198295-CPEC-sectt-without-project-director-key-specialists
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