CONTRARY to the assurance given to the agitating employees of the Utility Stores Corporation (USC) against proposed privatization of the entity, the Government has gone a step further in deciding to close down the organization altogether. A seven-member “Cabinet Committee on the Closure of Operations of Utility Stores Corporation” has been established to oversee its closure process, with Federal Minister for Industry and Production appointed as its head, the Minister whose assurances that the Corporation will be reformed and not privatized pacified employees during peak of agitation against governmental plans vis-à-vis the USC.
The Government is pursuing an aggressive agenda of right-sizing and during the process a number of ministries and institutions are being wound up and some merged with others besides transferring a few to the provinces. It is, perhaps, for the first time that the right-sizing strategy is being implemented at such a scale with the objective of reducing the size of the Government as well as the administrative expenditure. This is being done in line with commitment with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the entire process is intended to be completed in a phased but steady manner. There is no doubt redundancies have to be eliminated as the resource starved country cannot afford to spend the tax-payers’ money for superfluous operations or activities. There are scores of entities doing almost nothing and they were created to accommodate people on political considerations. However, there are a number of organizations and corporations that contributed effectively to the cause of the country and welfare of the people in different ways. These institutions still has the potential to play their role in the socio-economic development of the nation and it would be wrong to abolish them when their performance and output can be improved with necessary reforms and transparency of their operations. The USC is one of such organizations that were successfully used by the successive governments to improve governance and provide relief to the masses during critical times. It was established in 1971 by taking over twenty retail outlets from the Staff Welfare Organization and after several stages of expansions and reorganization, its operations were expanded to different parts of the country.
During the last five decades, the Corporation opened over four thousand outlets besides over one thousand franchised ones as part of its mandate and responsibility of “providing clean, graded, hygienically fit, unadulterated genuine food and non-food items to the public and especially to the poorer segments of the society, at comparatively cheaper rates than the market”. Almost all governments launched programmes to provide essential items to the under-privileged segments of the society and the USC was assigned the task to implement such plans and it did so successfully. Its role was that of a ‘social welfare’ institution and not as a profit-earning entity but even then the corporation became profitable and viable during periods when it had professional heads and was allowed to operate without political interference. The Corporation provided relief even to the people living in far-flung areas through its mobile outlets, especially during Ramzan (when prices routinely go up) and emergent situations. It is often argued by the government leaders that it was not the job of the government to do business but it is definitely the duty of the government to protect interests of the marginalized segments of the society, a role that the USC has been playing satisfactorily. In this backdrop, it would have been prudent if, as per assurances given by the concerned minister, the Corporation was reformed and not closed. However, better sense has prevailed as far as the future of the permanent employees is concerned, who are proposed to be placed either in the surplus pool or absorbed against existing vacancies in other departments (if there are any after wholesale abolition of vacant posts).
