Conflict of interest: Auditors term OGRA chairperson's hiring illegal.

Byline: Zafar Bhutta

ISLAMABAD -- The Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) has termed the appointment of Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) chairperson illegal, a decision which may cause trouble for the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), which had been in power from 2013-18.

The apex court has already taken notice of appointment of the managing director of Pakistan State Oil (PSO). Now, the AGP remarks about Ogra chairperson's hiring may deal another blow to the PML-N as the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) may initiate investigation into the matter.

Auditors noted that the appointment of Ogra Chairperson Uzma Adil violated the Ogra Ordinance 2002 and recommended that the matter should be probed.

They found that Adil had been looking after the interest of Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL), being its former employee, and had given undue favour while approving the company's revenue requirement of billions of rupees.

According to clause 5(2) of the Ogra ordinance, no person shall be appointed member or he or she has any direct or indirect financial interest or any connection which might reasonably be viewed as giving rise to conflict of interest with any person involved in the regulated activity.

During the audit for fiscal year 2016-17, it was noted that the federal government appointed Adil as Ogra chairperson in July 2016 at a salary of Rs500,000 per month. The chairperson, before joining Ogra, had served almost her entire carrier in SNGPL on positions of company chief, GM, secretary, CFO, DMD and MD.

The auditors pointed out that she was allowed to come over from SNGPL to Ogra without any gap. Ogra is SNGPL's regulator.

Being the MD and CFO, she had recommended final revenue requirement and given proposals pertaining to unaccounted-for-gas (UFG) loss to Ogra. The same subjects came within her jurisdiction at Ogra for review. The auditors found that the final revenue requirement of SNGPL for 2015-16 and estimated revenue requirement for 2016-17 were decided in...