The justice league: CM’s incompetent team struggles to investigate incompetence

Some of the cases are pending for more than a decade, political pressure means few convictions.

KARACHI:

The Chief Minister's Inspection, Inquiry and Implementation Team (CMIIT) was formed to inquire and inspect government officials, departments and projects but fails at its job remarkably as decade-long cases are still remain pending, The Express Tribune has learnt.

The team

The CMIIT comprises a chairperson, a secretary, a director-general and three members who are all senior bureaucrats. They frequent various departments and projects utilising government resources but often with no tangible results.



Sources privy to the team told The Express Tribune that on an average 100 complaints are received by the inspection team every month but it barely manages to dispose of one of them in this time. The CMIIT initiates investigations after notifications are issued by various departments against any wrongdoings.

Accepting their short comings

"The files of inquiries referred to us in 2003 are still gathering dust," admitted one CMIIT member to The Express Tribune, referring to a stack of pending case files piled up around him. "Most of the cases are against senior bureaucrats, including secretaries, section officers, director-generals, DIGs, SSPs and even officials of the anti-corruption department, but no action has been taken against any of them."

Another member of the CMIIT openly admitted failures but requested anonymity. "A big fraud was detected in 2003 when the public service commission passed 51 candidates that had failed their competitive exams. A senior official of the commission had disclosed publicly how it had happened. The then CM had ordered an inquiry but it is still pending."

According to official records most of the pending cases are against officers working in education, revenue, irrigation, local government and police departments.



A few government employees who had lodged complaints with CMIIT are now retired, yet their cases are still pending. The extent of the problem can be gauged from a case of some irrigation employees in 2005. They had lodged complaints against their colleagues who had been promoted without merit in 2005, but nothing has been done till now and a few of the complainants have retired.

A few months ago, a case of 15,000 fake orders issued by the local government department made the headlines.

After the investigation, the department secretary issued a notification to remove all those officers in November, 2013. The next day, the CM ordered to withhold the notification and referred the inquiry to the CMIIT with strict directives to furnish the inquiry at the earliest, but it is still being conducted.

Pointing a finger towards a file regarding the dispute on the ownership rights of 1,800 plots in Sehwan Development Authority, an official said, "Even after six years, the case is yet to be resolved."

However, he was quick to add that even if they do expedite inquiries, it is to little avail as political pressure and delay-tactics undermine any work on their part. "Recently, we have received a case against the anti-corruption director; there are allegations against him of misuse of authority," he said. "But due to political pressure, we don't know what to do against him. If we do furnish a report and send it to the chief minister, the execution will just be delayed with one excuse or the other. Implementations on the enquiries have only been carried out in a couple of the cases."

Chairperson defends his team

However, the CMIIT chairperson Subhan Memon defended the government and provided multiple reasons for the delays. "We conduct the inquiries on time, but some people go to court and challenge them. This delays the dispensation of justice on our part," he told The Express Tribune.

Memon then went on to claim that he feels that the team has surpassed expectations. "We have resolved many cases within two to three days," he said. "A few of the cases are pending but there are valid reasons behind the delays, including frequent transfers and postings." 

Published in The Express Tribune, June 12^th, 2014.