FURNITURE BOARD ABOLISHED ?

in the Ministry of Industries and Production under the public-private partnership scheme. The mandate of this organisation was the uplift of the furniture industry through various measures.
A PC-1 was floated and approved for installing 75 solar kilns, training centres in Chiniot and Peshawar, formation of working office and organising exhibitions to promote furniture trade at home and abroad. Down the line, the company was envisioned to look into upgrading the value chain of the furniture industry, providing skilled manpower, enacting international standards and marketing local products abroad. The organisation was aimed at providing this uplift across the board to large, medium and small manufacturers. The Furniture Pakistan was tasked with raising exports to $1 billion by 2013; hence, the furniture industry was destined to reach the level of textile sector of Pakistan. The company was given seed money of Rs 600 million to undertake the objectives mentioned above. Its first CEO Dr Shahzad Ansar was a political appointee, who was inducted on a contract basis in February 2009 for a two-year term. A board of directors was established in July 2010 to oversee the affairs of the company to ensure a better performance. As soon as the board started looking into the affairs of the Furniture Pakistan, it found a serious lapse of performance under the management of Dr Ansar. The training centres were supposed to be operational by March 2010 within one year of the hiring of the CEO, but he failed to meet the deadline.
Only 10 solar kilns have been installed so far out of the 75 to be installed and not even a single one of them was in working condition. The vendors had already been paid and they are now refusing to fix the faulty kilns. The board also discovered serious financial irregularities under Dr Ansar. The financial statement of the company was not being approved by the board members. As per the PC-1, the company was only allowed to hire a staff of 19 people but the CEO had hired a total of 37 people. Out of Rs 135 million expenditure so far, 75 percent was of a non-development nature while operational and non-development expenditure stood at Rs 100 million and development expenditure at Rs 35 million. The CEO was undertaking capital expenditure without the approval of the board of directors and was travelling business class in violation of the government regulations. A piece of land was acquired for Chiniot training centre at Rs 28 million with only a 25-feet front. The CEO had rented out an office for Rs 700,000 per month against an office staff requirement of only 15 people while misuse of official vehicles was in routine. The salaries of the employees were extortionate and many times more than what was approved in the PC-1 while many employees were inducted without going through proper hiring procedures. The first exhibition of the Pakistani furniture was conducted at a local hotel last year, which cost the orgnisation  Rs 12.5 million. In contrast, a recent exhibition was conducted in the same venue by the board of directors for Rs 2.5 million only.
Since its inception in July 2010, the board of directors under the leadership and guidance of Yasmeen Rehman, a member of the National Assembly (MNA) belonging to the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), worked day and night to get the Furniture Pakistan back on track. It patiently worked with Dr Ansar and kept pushing him to fix/reverse the above anomalies. However, Dr Ansar refused to listen to the suggestions of the board of directors and insisted that he was a close friend of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani. He kept threatening that he would get the board of directors dissolved if it did not get off his back. In this respect, the board of directors wrote a number of letters to the PIDC and the Ministry of Industries to seek official help in fixing the affairs of the Furniture Pakistan. Finally, after losing all patience with Dr Ansar, in the last the board of directors meeting, the 25 board members decided with a majority that Dr Ansar’s contract would not be renewed beyond March 2011. Within a week, the board of directors was dissolved under the excuse that it was not performing well. There are several achievements the board can claim within seven months of its inception. The board chairperson effectively created committees for various projects and spearheaded a number of very successful projects. Among these is a major cut in expenses by shifting of the company office from the expensive Main Boulevard premises to a more self-sustainable premises, slashed the number of consultants, discouraged unnecessary staff hiring and held two successful exhibitions in Islamabad and Lahore.
US Consul General in Lahore, Carmella Conroy, visited the exhibition and promised to include furniture sector in strategic dialogue between the United States and the Pakistan governments. A memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed between the Furniture Pakistan and the Ministry of Labour for the allocation of a piece of land in Islamabad for a training center. The Furniture Pakistan received three sponsorships for Lahore and Islamabad exhibitions amounting to Rs 1 million. It is important to note that the board of directors comprises prominent and performance oriented names in the furniture industry, including Yasmeen Rehman (Noble Interiors), Ghazala Rehman (Indesign), Kashif (Chen One), Turhan Baig (Alishan Furniture, Karachi), Ahad (Ahadhome Signature), Shahbaz Aslam (Charagh Din), Shahzad Mughal (Workman), Maqbool (Mohkham Furniture), Yousaf (United Furniture, Peshawar), Rizwan Amjad (National Furniture, Gujrat) and many more prominent names from the Pakistan furniture industry. It is time the prime minister intervenes in the matter and should listen to the viewpoint of the board of directors as Dr Ansar has ostensibly misrepresented the facts by blaming his incompetence and corruption on the board. Apart from it, the dissolution of the board has affected millions of people associated with the furniture industry.