NFDC reels off a Rs 24 crore loss

The mess is being attributed in part to the lack of an effective management at the helm of things. NFDC is functioning without a chairperson, managing director, board of directors and a company secretary. After Ravi Gupta resigned as Managing Director on February 5, 1998, an Officiating MD, T Krishamurthy, was appointed. Raghu Menon, Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, was also given additional charge as chairperson of the NFDC. At this point, the corporation was making profits averaging Rs six crore a year. According to the union, Mohan, who is set to retire on April 12, never visited the corporation’s headquarters at Mumbai even once during his tenure. No Board of Directors has been appointedfor the last four years, and a temporary board was propped up in January 1998 for a period of just three months. The union has demanded that the vacant posts be filled up.

According to the union, the present management has run up huge – and unnecessary – bills by purchasing furniture, renovating offices in its rented premises at Nehru Centre, misusing office cars, illegally appointing high-salaried staff and paying high rentals on underused premises. The union also stated that despite possessing a 4,000 sq ft premises at Nariman Point, the corporation has leased out the space and has instead set up shop on three floors at the Discovery of India building at Nehru Centre, where the corporation is spending huge sums on renovations. Another premises admeasuring 6,000 sq ft at Shivsagar Estate, Worli, has been vacant for the last one year. A 2,000 sq ft at Vashi which housed a sub-titling unit which shut down is now being used by the corporation as a godown, adds the union.

All’s not well with the appointmentsalso, alleges the union. It has dashed off letters to the management demanding the removal of 40 junior officers, whose appointments allegedly violate recruitment rules of the corporation. The officers reportedly don’t posses the qualifications required for the job. The then chairperson of NFDC, V K Majotra, Additional Secretary of the I & B ministry, had written to the present OMD to sack at least 15 junior officers who have not completed their probation with immediate effect. The board of directors had recommended setting up a sub-committee to study the union’s demands. But the present OMD has not yet called a meeting of the committee.

However Krishnamurthy, who is also set to quit on April 5, said the person who would take over his post would answer the question of whether the corporation is running losses. “The financial year will end only on March 31, so we cannot tell,” he claimed. Krishnamurthy neither denied nor confirmed whether NFDC owed DD Rs 44 crore, instead saying “We have to recover Rs 58crore from the market ourselves, after which we will pay DD.”