Communications and Works Department: Four officers sacked for corruption, negligence

Punjab govt terminates four officials who caused the public exchequer a loss of Rs90 million

The Punjab government has terminated four officials of the Communications and Works Department on charges of corruption and criminal negligence which caused the public exchequer a loss of Rs90 million. The officials were terminated under Section 4 of the Punjab Employees Efficiency, Discipline and Accountability (PEEDA) Act 2006.

The chief minister (CM) has also directed the secretary of the Communications and Works Department to recover the embezzled money from the accused officials. The terminated official include Tariq Mehmood, a highways XEN, sub divisional officer Mubashar Ali Bajwa, sub engineer Imam Buksh Khosa and sub engineer Muhammad Ashraf Shervani. Fayyazul Hassan, the superintendent engineer of Dera Ghazi Khan provincial highways has been awarded the minor penalty of ‘censure’ on the same charges.

The Punjab government had received complaints regarding Rs90 million pilferage in the construction of a road from Zain to Kharr via Bharti in Dera Ghazi Khan. The CM had appointed the Irrigation and Power Department secretary as the inquiry officer.

The inquiry revealed that Rs72.88 million was paid for excavation of shingle, gravel and rock. However, the inquiry found that that the right of way could have been cleared by a tractor blade since the condition at the site hardly indicated any need for rock or hill cutting.

The inquiry officer concluded that the officials had paid the amount to the contractor Mansoor Hussain & Brothers fraudulently on inaccurate calculation of work.

He held the accused officials guilty of the charges and they were issued show cause notices under Section 13(4) of the PEEDA Act 2006.

The chief minister then appointed Azam Suleman Khan, the secretary of the Communication and Works Department to afford personal hearing to the accused.

On the basis of inquiry, the CM dismissed the four officials and directed Khan to recover Rs90 million from them.

The government, said a Communications and Works Department official, had taken a lenient view in not ordering the registration of a criminal case against them under the Prevention of Corruption Act. Mehmood would be required to pay 40 per cent, Bajwa 30 per cent, Khosa 10 per cent and Shervani 20 per cent of the Rs90 million.

Sources in the Communication and Works Department said Shervani was very close to former provincial minister Sirdar Dost Muhammad Khan Khosa.

Mehmood told The Express Tribune that dismissal from service was an extreme punishment. He also said that the charges levelled against them were baseless. He added that they were made scapegoats by the bureaucracy to claim adherence to high standards of efficiency.

Ansari said the government had been unjust and claimed that the alleged fraud had happened prior to his posting to Dera Ghazi Khan. Published in The Express Tribune, March 31^st, 2011.