Major corruption cases crawling out of the woodwork

Over 30 Forest Department officials accused of stealing from supplies.

BAHALWALPUR: Over 30 employees of the Forest Department in Rahim Yar Khan have been found to be involved in corruption cases totalling Rs52 million.

Bahawalpur division anti-corruption director, Zahid Hussain Jilani, said that the department had found proof that the accused had been selling off government assets worth Rs52million. “These funds belonged to the Rahim Yar Khan Forest Department. They stole wood and embezzled department funds,” Jilani said.

Jilani told reporters that the accused had stolen wood belonging to the department worth millions of rupees and then sold it in the market for a profit.  The 30 employees include a senior conservator, six regional forest officers and district forest officers. “The real problem is that these corruption cases involve people at every level in the entire department,” the anti-corruption director said, adding “We are tracing the money back and it could end up being even more than what we think.”

Jilani said that his team had also named 27 forest guards in the list. “These men were directly involved in the corruption; they bungled money and stole wood,” he said. “Most of the forest guards have actually employed daily wage labourers to carry out wood belonging to the department and selling it in the market on their behalf,” he said.

The Anti-corruption Department has lodged cases against all the employees involved in wood theft cases and further investigations are underway. “The entire department is under investigation and we have also sent our reports to other districts,” he said. Jilani said that because of gas load shedding and power cuts the demand for wood had risen considerably in the entire province.

“The demand for wood is extremely high and the Forest Department seems to be cashing in on the demand by stealing from their own resources and selling in the open market,” he said.

Jilani said that the Punjab government had given them the go-ahead to seal all Forest Department records for investigation.

“We need to establish how deep this goes,” he said, adding that wood theft cases had been reported from around the banks of 19 canals in Southern Punjab.

“We have also lodged an FIR and after the initial judicial process. All employees and records will be taken into custody,” he said.

Jilani said that he had constituted a team of investigators to look into the department’s records.

“All the records have been altered, which is why it is hard to trace the cash,” said a Forest Department official, who wished to remain anonymous.

“I know of people who were employed to erase or change the records. More than 70 per cent of the information has been lost,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 19^th, 2011.