IA explains status of 18 directors on its board

ISLAMABAD: The management of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has been promoting officers as directors, apparently in violation of court’s orders and in some cases even contempt notices have been issued and in the process has vastly exceeded the actual number of approved posts of directors.

At present there are eighteen directors in PIA against approved posts of twelve hence PIA has 50 per cent more top executives than allowed by law.The Spokesman of PIA, Mashood Tajwer while talking to The News agreed that there were 18 directors but explained the position.

According to details, the PIA Board of Directors in its 255th meeting had declared that the number of directors in PIA could not exceed twelve but the incumbent management had promoted six extra directors which had resulted in issuance of at least five notices of contempt of court against Director Human Resource, Admin and Coordination, Mr Aijaz Mazhar.

The 18 directors on the payroll of PIA include, Captain Qasim Hayat, Director Flight Operations; Shahnawaz Rehman, Director Corporate Planning, Maqsood Ahmed, Director Engineering (Posted); Nayyar Hayat, Director Finance/Chief Financial Officer; S Aijaz Mazhar, Director HRA & C; Babar Kamal Mumtaz, Director (Without Assignment); Ghazala Rashid, Executive Director Sky Rooms; Capt. S. Hamid Gardezi, Director Flight Safety; AVM Sohail Director, Precision Engineering; Saminuddin Naqvi, Director Engineering (Incumbent); Khurram Mushtaq, Director (Without assignment); Rashid Ahmed, Director (Without Assignment); Omar Razzaque, Director P&L; W J Bornshin, Director Airport Services; Anjum Amin Mirza, Director Training & Development and Accountability; Amanullah Qureshi, Director

Flight Services and Food Services; Amir Ali, Director MRO and EASA-145 Certification and Sohail Yaqoob Officiating Director Marketing.

However, Spokesman Mashood Tajwer explained that out of the eighteen directors in PIA, Babar Kamal Mumtaz was on Leave Priority to Retirement while Sohail Yaqoob was officiating director. He maintained that it was a norm in PIA that the post of Director Precision Engineering was always occupied by the officers from Pakistan Air Force.

He continued that one Ghazala Rashid had gone on deputation as Executive Director to a hotel, which had its own board but he admitted that Ms Ghazala was officer of director level in PIA.

Regarding Khurram Mushtaq, Director without assignment, the PIA spokesman said that there were pending litigations in his case. However regarding another director without assignment, Rashid Ahmad, Tajwer maintained that he had been kept without assignment and there were no litigations in his case.

“So out of the 18 directors, one is retiring on April 3; one has gone on deputation to Sky Rooms; two are without assignment; one post belongs to Air Force while one is officiating director, therefore, the remaining directors are twelve”, PIA Spokesman said.

To the question if a post is occupied by PAF or any other department, does that post belong to that department? The PIA spokesman answered in negative but maintained that the post of Director Precision Engineering was always occupied by PAF therefore when PIA counted its directors, it counted the officers of PIA.

To another question that if a director is not assigned any department, doesn’t he remain a director? The PIA spokesman was of the view that there might be a confusion that PIA might have 12 functioning directors excluding those without assignment/deputation or the actual number of directors should be twelve, but at present, PIA had twelve functioning directors.

He said that the number of directors functioning/not functioning had exceeded twelve because recently, the national flag carrier abolished two posts of deputy managing directors i.e DMD Engineering and DMD Operations therefore one of the DMD was demoted and made director.It is worth mentioning here that PIA management has been issued at least five contempt of court notices for promoting the directors despite clear ban by the Sindh High Court.

Former Ecobank directors defend under-pressure

ACCRA: Two former directors of Ecobank defended CEO Thierry Tanoh and said he is under pressure to resign because he is dealing with governance problems that allegedly took place before his tenure began at one of the biggest banks in sub-Saharan Africa.

Their views are likely to be advanced to shareholders by the company on Monday at an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) at its headquarters in the Togolese capital Lome to vote on governance reforms.

Several current and former senior bank officials rejected the claim as false and said it was an effort to divert attention from governance problems which, they asserted, started once Tanoh became chief executive in January 2013.

Ecobank is divided over the leadership of Tanoh, an Ivorian who was vice president of the World Bank's International Finance Corporation.

The bank's main shareholder Public Investment Corporation of South Africa said in a letter on Saturday Tanoh should be dismissed immediately, accusing him of governance breaches and of failing to raise capital.

On Feb. 13, the executives on Tanoh's top management team called for him to step down to resolve a leadership crisis. Former directors Babatunde Ajibade and Kolapo Lawson, who served on a board that now has 12 members, said criticism of Tanoh is rooted in fear by other senior executives that his willingness to reform governance may expose past problems.

In interviews, both men declined to spell out those alleged failures in detail.

But Lawson said in a resignation letter dated Feb. 7 and seen by Reuters that they stemmed from "the ETI public offering of 2008", which refers to the bank's flotation on the Nigerian stock exchange.

ETI, or Ecobank Transnational Incorporated, is the name of the bank group's formal name. "The institution has an unfortunate legacy of executive mismanagement that was deliberately and carefully concealed from the board," said Ajibade's resignation letter, dated Feb. 6 and also seen by Reuters. Ajibade is a corporate lawyer.

Ajibade and Lawson said their concerns were first raised last Aug. 5 when Tanoh presented an interim report to the board, spelling out possible breaches prior to his tenure that he said needed to be investigated.

Evidence of those purported breaches should emerge in a report by professional services firm EY that was commissioned by the bank, Lawson told Reuters, calling allegations against Tanoh that have occurred since that board meeting a "smokescreen".

"There was great resistance, and that resistance continues to this day. The board doesn't want to release the results of the EY report," Lawson said.

"They want to get rid of him before the EGM," he added. An Ecobank spokesman declined to comment. Tanoh was unavailable for comment, and has previously declined to speak about the issues while investigations are ongoing.

INTERIM REPORT:

The current and former senior officials dismissed Ajibade and Lawson's claims and said governance standards were strictly upheld during the tenure of previous CEO Arnold Ekpe.

The former directors' views were merely an attempt to divert attention from this fact, said the officials, who declined to be identified. Ekpe declined to comment.

The officials said Lawson's credibility on the matter was tarnished. Lawson stood down as chairman in October, saying he did not want to preside over the governance review, before sending his letter of resignation from the board on Feb. 7.

In 2013, he owed Ecobank Nigeria roughly $10 million indirectly through businesses he owned and a further 1.4 billion naira ($8.5 million) of borrowings that was sold to Nigeria's so-called "bad bank", the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON).

AMCON owns 8.09 percent of Ecobank stock. The debt portion owed to the bank has now been paid, Ecobank said.

In a separate letter to Nigeria's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), dated Jan. 20, Tanoh calls for further investigation of what he called previous transgressions.

"Subsequent to my assumption of office I became aware of improper financial offences at ETI that have not been done in the best interest of investors or the institution," said the letter, seen by Reuters.

It was not immediately possible to reach other board members. Top executives have declined repeated requests for comment.