KARACHI: Controversy emerged in the Sindh government's scheme of disbursing stipends to female students as several distribution teams associated with a branchless banking service were found involved in embezzlement in different public schools.
The corruption was exposed as a result of a raid at a public school in Makli, led by Ghulam Nabi, the senior programme manager at the Sindh education department's Reform Support Unit. Nabi told The Express Tribune that Azizullah Memon, who belonged to one of the Easypaisa distribution teams, charged Rs18,000 from the headmaster of the Government Girls' High School.
In another case, Muhammad Imran, part of another team, only delivered Rs2,300 to each student at the Government KG Girls' High School in Dadu, instead of the specified monthly stipend of Rs2,500. He had withdrawn the cash when he was merely supposed to deliver an ATM card or a pin code, Nabi explained.
"The Sindh government has a contract with a third party for the distribution of the stipends without any delivery costs," said Nabi. "Asking students and school administration for even a single rupee in this context is a crime and the distribution officials have assured us of their full cooperation in identifying the culprits."
In June this year, the Sindh education department and Easypaisa signed a contract to electronically disburse Rs1.2 billion through their ATM cards as a stipend for 450,000 female students.
Prior to this contract, the stipend money had been delivered to the intended recipients through the Pakistan Post, a process which produced numerous complaints about transparency and flagrant corruption.
Addition to print story: The Easypaisa management confirmed that some men were involved in this scam and that they have taken action against them. “After thorough investigations, immediate corrective action was taken against the culprits,” the company statement said. “We have zero tolerance for such activities. We have in place stringent and effective policies to mitigate any such malpractices that go beyond the limits of our work ethics and strictly reinforced code of conduct.”
Published in The Express Tribune, November 22nd, 2014.
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