A senior official of the Anti-Corruption Establishment, the provincial anti-corruption watchdog, said that the chief minister’s approval was required to take legal action against the accused of grades BS-20 and above, adding that the former VC and director projects would be summoned next week to clarify the allegations against them. “The officials concerned could be arrested after a case is registered against them. All relevant records in this regard have been seized,” he added.
Dr Rana served as the Faislabad GCU’s acting VC for about two years. He was removed in November last year on allegations of corruption, abuse of authority, misappropriation of funds and nepotism. According to Sections 6 and 7 of Anti Corruption Establishment Rules 1985 (Amended), it is mandatory to conduct an inquiry before instituting a criminal case against the accused. Dr Rana is now serving as a professor of Zoology in BS-21 and co-accused Col (retd) Muhammad Latif is in BS-20. According to a report compiled by the university’s registrar, Dr Rana, in connivance with Latif, awarded a contract for raising the height of a fence at a very exorbitant rate in violation of rules and regulations. The contract was awarded to M/s Elcon Association for Rs9.81 million.
Rana was also accused of bungling Rs2 million from university funds to renovate and decorate his house. He was also said to have awarded the Rs24.483 million contract for the establishment of residential facilities for visiting and foreign faculty members to M/s Heights Developer against a sanctioned cost of Rs22.9 million. The contractor was given an advance payment of Rs3.672 million in violation of university regulations.
Other contracts in which the vice-chancellor was said to have misappropriated public funds include:
(i) A deal for building a social sciences block for Rs146.437 million to Campaigner Associates against Rs106.9 million, the sanctioned amount. The firm did not have Pakistan Engineering Council certification and its name was entered after tampering with the official record.
(ii) Awarding a contract for building a science block to Elcon Associates for Rs146.87 million against a sanctioned amount of just Rs109 million. He is said to have skimmed Rs20 million in kickbacks from the firm.
iii)Accommodating M/s Uprights Engineers for the construction of a girls’ hostel at the university campus for Rs63.187 million against the budgeted amount of Rs33.160 million without the approval of the university’s syndicate. The project was funded by Higher Education Commission but the payment was fraudulently made from funds set aside by the Punjab government for other projects.
“In addition to financial irregularities, the vice-chancellor is also said to have terminated 166 contractual employees and appointed new ones for monetary gratification,” the Anti Corruption Establishment official said.
Dr Shahid Mahboob Rana has been charged under Section 5 of the sub-section 2 of the Prevention of Corruption Act and sections 420, 468, 471 and 109 of the Pakistan Penal Code.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 9th, 2011.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ