Govt committed to ensuring transparency during privatisation of PSEs

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The government is committed to ensure transparency and integrity during privatisation of Public Sector Enterprises (PSEs) included in the privatisation programme after approval by the Cabinet Committee on Privatisation (CCOP) for ‘Early Implementation’, government sources said on Friday.

“The government is fully cognizant of the fact that ensuring full transparency and integrity of the privatisation process is crucial to the success of the programme,” said an official statement released to the media.

In order to ensure transparency, all important stakeholders, including the relevant ministries, regulators, and management teams of the entities being privatised, are included in the privatisation process from the beginning of the whole exercise, the statement said.

All stakeholders are invited by the Privatisation Commission to provide their input when the transaction is being conceptualised, and subsequently, they are invited to participate in all the important meetings that take place over the course of the transaction.

This ensures that they have a say at each and every stage of the process, and that they are aware of all the aspects of the privatisation process being carried out.

Furthermore, all major decisions to be taken with respect to any transaction have to be approved by the Board of the Privatisation Commission and the Cabinet Committee on Privatisation (CCOP) the statement read.

The Board comprises eminent professionals, including business leaders, lawyers and retired senior bureaucrats, and it has been ensured that there is at least one representative from each province of the Board to protect the interests of the provinces.

The CCOP is headed by the Minister for Finance, Revenues, Economic Affairs, Statistics and Privatisation and consists of all economy related federal ministers.

The Privatisation Commission also ensures complete compliance with the public procurement laws, as well as the rules and regulations framed there under, for all procurements, including but not limited to the hiring of financial advisors and valuators for privatisation transactions.

Furthermore, the Privatisation Commission is meticulous in ensuring full compliance with the relevant provisions of the National Accountability Ordinance 1999, the statement said.

In order to ensure complete transparency, the Privatisation Commission, during the present government’s tenure, has also been voluntarily submitting numerous additional transaction-related documents to NAB, which are not mandatory.

The commission has been fully cooperative and forthcoming whenever it has been called up to brief the Public Accounts Committee or Standing Committees on Finance, Revenue, Economic Affairs, Statistics and Privatisation of the Senate and National Assembly, regarding any matters related to privatisation.

In order to increase transparency and awareness of the Privatisation Commission’s operations, the Commission has endeavored to keep the press regularly updated and has also recently decided to increase its outreach to all audiences by becoming active on social media, the statement said.