Millions embezzled in PM’s loan scheme

ISLAMABAD: The staff of the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) has siphoned off millions of rupees of Prime Minister’s Youth Business Loan Scheme by opening bogus accounts, reveals an official investigation.

It is the first of its kind fraud in the government’s flagship loan programme unearthed in the Mardan region of NBP.

An officer of the state-owned bank is found to be involved in the fraud who, with the help of his brother, withdrew money from the accounts of beneficiaries of the loan scheme, according to an initial investigation report available with The Express Tribune.



Shah Nawaz Khan, Area Credit Manager of NBP, was running a ‘parallel bank’ and withdrawing money without authorisation from the bank accounts, said the report.

NBP Mardan Region Head Naeemullah Jan confirmed that Khan was running a parallel bank and he had been suspended. However, he refused to further comment on the matter.

Investigators have recommended that the Central Unit of Fraud/Forgery (CUFF) of NBP should carry out a comprehensive probe to ascertain the exact quantum of losses.Sources said so far Rs8 million worth of fraud had been detected.

On August 4, the NBP regional head had authorised the investigation and the probe report was sent to him on August 15, four days before Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif visited the NBP headquarters in Karachi for a briefing on the loan scheme.

The premier launched the scheme in December 2013 with an aim to provide loans of up to Rs2 million to the applicants and requiring a total of Rs100-200 billion. A Prime Minister’s Office press release of August 19 stated that the premier was unhappy with the way NBP was implementing the scheme, designed to provide sources of livelihood to the youth.

NBP Executive Vice President and head of policy, procedures and system development of the loan scheme Zubair Mirza did not respond to the request for comments despite repeated attempts.

The investigators randomly selected 18 cases of the loan scheme and “found grave irregularities in all the cases,” according to the investigation report. They found instances of parallel banking in all these cases. Over Rs20 million was disbursed from the 18 accounts.

Furthermore, “large-scale pocketing was also observed through unauthorised debt and credit to the PM youth loan scheme bank accounts.”



 

“Most of the entries have been routed through A/C No 4045242751 titled Spinkai Builders and the signatory authority of the account is Asif Nawaz Khan, who is reportedly the real brother of the main accused Shah Nawaz Khan,” revealed the report.

Of the 18 cases, two were found to be “totally bogus, ghost and both the borrowers have completely disowned the accounts”.

Taimoor Ali Shah and Murad Ali said they never opened the two accounts in the NBP main branch Mardan, nor received their cheque books, it added. The investigators found that Rs1.53 million was withdrawn from the Taimoor Ali Shah account and Rs1.575 million from the Murad Ali account.

The investigators noted that there was likelihood of such instances in other cases as well and recommended a detailed investigation by CUFF.

In another case, Rs150,000 was withdrawn from an account and given to Qamar Zaman, which was subsequently transferred to the account of Spinkai Builders.

In a separate case, Rs1.566 million was sanctioned to Muhammad Yasir without securing 10% equity. In the case of three accounts, involving Rs2.84 million, the debit and credit vouchers were missing.

In yet another case, it was found that a beneficiary’s money was given to Spinkai Builders. In this case, Rs80,000 was withdrawn from the account of Muhammad Inam and given to Spinkai Builders.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 22^nd, 2016.