Two dozen cooks among 34 'servants' deployed at homes of senior cops

Audit report reveals even retired officers retain servants paid for by govt

ISLAMABAD: As many as 34 officials of the Islamabad police have been deployed as cooks, sweepers, gardeners and washmen at the homes of senior officers of the force, both serving and some who have retired from service or have been transferred away from the capital.

This was revealed in a report submitted by the office of the Auditor Genera l of Pakistan (AGP) to the Parliament.



The report that as many as 24 cooks were working at the homes of senior police officers in violation of the rules.

“Audit observed that 34 out of 353 ‘followers’ were exclusively deployed with police officers at their residences at the cost of public exchequer. In some cases, the officers had left Islamabad or retired from service [but] even then followers were working with them … Audit is of the view that deployment of followers with the officers at their residences was not covered under the rules,” the report read.

Some of the police officers who had kept government-paid cooks at their residences for years included Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Waqar Ahmed Chohan, former-DIG and incumbent Multan Regional Police Officer Sultan Azam Taimuri, Senior Superintendent Police (SSP) Mir Vais Niaz, and Assistant Superintendent Police (ASP) Sumera.



Moreover, the report said that two cooks had been deployed with Islamabad Police SSP-Operations Sajid Kiani. One cook, Shafqat Mehmood, had been working with Kiani since September 2009. The second cook, Muhammad Siddique, joined him in January 2016, the report noted.

The auditor general has recommended that salaries and allowances paid to these officials should be recovered from the officers with whom they were deployed in violation of rules.

“Audit recommends that pay and allowances paid to 34 followers may be recovered from the concerned officers and this practice should be stopped forthwith.”



The report noted that when the auditors raised objections over these deployments, the police office explained that a list sent to AGP office had not been updated.

The AGP, however, did not accept the police reply, arguing that the list had been provided by the management to auditor general’s office.

The AGP further noted that the principal accounting officer was informed about the irregularity in December 2016, but the departmental accounts committee did not convene till the finalisation of the report.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 27^th, 2017.