Senior ITDC officials launch forum to fight divestment

Handing over charge of Chairman-cum-Managing Director (CMD) of the ITDC to Asha Murthy (a Joint Secretary in the Union Tourism Ministry) violated the Government’s own norms that proscribed the appointment of a bureaucrat as the head of a public sector undertaking (PSU), they said.

A few years ago, an office memorandum circulated by the Ministry of Heavy Industries had directed that in the absence of a regular CMD, the senior most functional director should be handed over the charge as a bureaucrat could not run a PSU in a professional manner. “And our Corporation is being run by a bureaucrat who is already burdened with at least five responsibilities,” a senior vice-president pointed out, adding: “Has any one tried to go into the reasons why a corporation which grew from just one hotel in 1966 to 36 now and earned a record profit of Rs 59.5 crore in 1996-97, has suddenly begun incurring heavy losses?”

The employees maintained that the ITDC had always been a profit making venture since its inception, but its performance was allowed to slip in 1997 by vested interests who were there to make money out of its sell-off. Instead of turning a profit making PSU into a sick one, the Government could have easily turned it around and then decide its fate, they said.

A section of employees was also of the opinion that a profit making venture could be valued much higher which, in the event of the Government still deciding on privatisation, could fetch much more from the four premium properties than what it was expecting now from all the 30-odd hotels.

The ITDC has been functioning without a regular CMD for the past three years. Thanks to the intense lobbying and politicking that surrounds the selection for the top post, the Government has failed to zero in on a candidate and has, instead, handed over the charge to a senior bureaucrat of the Tourism Ministry — after considering names of Himachal cadre IAS officer Shailendra Nigam and S.C. Chhatwal of the ITDC itself.

The management, also protesting the CMD’s recent decision to lower the retirement age from 60 to 58 years, said the ITDC board was not taken into confidence before taking such an important decision that went against the Government’s own policy to just the opposite. In its meeting on June 19, the ITDC board had taken up the matter without its being on the agenda and the new CMD Asha Murthy had reportedly pushed the matter through, despite protests and dissent notes by the board members. In its meeting of July 31, the rollback was the only item that was not confirmed, resulting in serious embarrassment for the CMD who seemed keen to do so.

At a resolution passed after their meeting yesterday, the senior officials decided to form a core committee, including the representatives of the various employees’ unions that will take up their demands with the Government.

ITDC has registered the loss of a whlopping Rs 21 crore during the first quarter of the current financial year (2000-2001). In comparison, the losses for the whole of last year were Rs 18.74 crore

The Corporation has constantly shown a poor performance since 1997-98 when its profits slid from Rs 59.5 crore in the preceding year to Rs 43.3 crore; further slipping to Rs 10.8 crore in 1998-99.

By 1999-2000, it became a loss-making organisation, posting a loss of Rs 18.74 cr. The senior management, therefore, has demanded a thorough enquiry into its performancem saying the Government did not appoint a regular CMD and, instead, allowed the vested interests to ruin things.

Reacting to CMD Asha Murthy’s reported assertion that mounting losses led the Government to consider a reduction in retirement age limit for employees, senior officials said that as the chief, she too must own up responsibility.

“A private sector company would have sacked the chief and immediately ordered investigation under a similar situation, besides making efforts to stem the rot,” the chief of an ITDC hotel said. — ENS