EMPLOYEES UNION COMPLAINS ABOUT CORRUPTION

NFDC writes off Rs 50 crore losses
By MSM Desai
Is it a scam or scandal? The National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) which constituted to make artistic films and increase the number of theatres has incurred a loss of Rs 15 crore and written off Rs 50 crore as irrecoverable during the last two years without exploring means for legal recovery.

The sorry state of affairs has been brought to the notice of the information and broadcasting minister, Arun Jaitley in a letter by the NFDC Employees Union urging the minister to take urgent steps to appoint a board of directors immediately, as the employees are demoralised.

Ironically enough, the information and broadcasting minister Arun Jaitley appears to be least bothered about the ailing public sector outfit, busy as he is with the additional charge of the disinvestments portfolio. Like his predecessors, he has no time even to appoint a chairman or board of directors for the NFDC, which has been a "headless" body for a decade now.

As per the sub-section(6) of Article 78 ibid of the Corporation, at least two full-time functional directors are required to be appointed by the government to manage day to day activities. But these posts have not been filled for the last ten years. The corporation has been running without an executive director, except for a brief spell of one year (1998-99) when T Krishnamurthy occupied the position. Ever since Ravi Gupta quit his job as the managing director in 1998, the NFDC has had no MD. Even now, the joint secretary (Films) of the ministry of information and broadcasting has been given additional charge as officiating managing director but this stop-gap arrangement has not helped the NFDC come out of the red.

The NFDC Employees Union has further pointed out that the pathetic situation has been reflected in a report they had submitted, which has been gathering dust for the last two years. Seeking redressal, the union has pointed out that a revision of pay scales of the employees has been due from January 1, 1997.

At present, the NFDC finances neither filmmaking nor theatres. The import and distribution of films has almost come to a standstill. Yet the expenses on the officers’ jaunts abroad has been more than Rs 20 lakh per annum. The quality of films produced by the NFDC has also gone down and not a single award has been bagged in the last few years. At the same time, huge expenditure is being incurred over the production of mediocre films which have neither commercial nor artistic value, the union stated.

The union has also blamed the middle management for not safe guarding the interests of the corporation. This is because, the union stated that a few officers occupying the top positions are neither qualified nor capable of doing justice to their posts.