A year late, FIA wakes up against fertiliser fraud

How National Fertilizer Marketing was swindled out of Rs27 billion worth of urea.

LAHORE:

A year and a half after it first caught onto a Rs27 billion embezzlement scandal in the state-owned fertiliser distribution company, the Federal Investigation Agency has finally sought the approval of the interior ministry to begin prosecuting those it alleges were responsible.

The scam involved officials at the state-owned National Fertilizer Marketing Ltd (NFML) taking bribes in exchange for a multi-tiered scheme that involved obtaining government subsidies to import fertiliser, not delivering it to government warehouses as was promised, and then shipping off the fertiliser to Afghanistan illegally, and in the process creating an artificial shortage in the local market.

Between June 2008 and December 2010, about 78,000 bags (usually 50 kilogrammes each) of fertiliser worth about Rs27 billion were moved illegally by about 10 people, with the cooperation of NFML officials, allege officials familiar with the investigations.

Yet sources said that the scam currently uncovered by the FIA may be just the tip of the iceberg. They say that about 2.5 million tons of urea, worth $1 billion, was imported by several companies this past year at the behest of the state-owned companies but about 40% of that has yet to be delivered to the government’s warehouses.

At least two officials have so far been sacked over the scandal – deputy general manager Hamid Pervez, Ikramul Haq, a consultant – and one other person, marketing officer Fateh Muhammad, was forced into early retirement. But several others named in the investigation are still serving in the NFML, including regional manager Abdul Ghaffar. Others named include Faisal Shehzad, Ahmed Shehzad, and Khawaja Akber. The former two own Faisal Movers and the third owns Akbar Brothers, both trading companies.

The FIA wants to register cases against all of the aforementioned as well as other officials and contractors at the NFML.

The scandal came to light when the FIA received a complaint in April 2010 (from whom, they do not say) claiming that the above officials – as well as the then-Industries Secretary Shahab Anwar Khawaja and then NFML Managing Director Mian Muhammad Ijaz – received Rs390 million in bribes to allow the smuggling of fertiliser imported at Karachi to Afghanistan via Chaman.

The fertiliser had been meant for the government’s storage facilities at Gwadar, Hub, Eminabad, Kisan, Risalpur, Sheikhupura, Mandi Bahuddin, and Darogawala. The marketing officers at those sites are also being investigated for their complicity in the matter.

Around 10 people have been named by the FIA as having been responsible for much of the scam. Sources familiar with the investigation revealed that these people, in connivance with NFML officials, not only misappropriated the urea, but also managed to receive government payments for transport and labour handling charges.

As a result of their smuggling, an artificial shortage of urea – already a scarce commodity in the country – was created, allowing them to profit even further through the local black marketing of the fertiliser.

The current managing director of NFML, Bilal Ahmed Khan, a retired army brigadier, appears to have been shocked by the extent of the corruption, writing a letter to President Asif Ali Zardari on July 16, detailing the scandal and requesting action.

“During the period of 2009-2010 ... the entire organisation was being run by the former managing director along with some other corrupt officials and contractors with the objective of achieving personal gains,” he said in his letter. “The entire existing dealer networks were rendered ineffective.”

In the meantime, the FIA is now proceeding with its investigation, checking records and taking witness statements at 57 of the NFML’s locations across the country. The sheer scale of the records, however, has slowed down the investigation.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 21^st, 2011.