Marriage grants: Rs160m meant for workers from 10,000 industrial units went to 98
A Sindh fund of 160 million rupees meant for marriage grants has gone to workers from a select 98 industrial units in Karachi even though there are over ten thousand of them in the city.
On Thursday, the National Assembly’s standing committee on labour and manpower formed a sub-committee to investigate the scam by the Workers Welfare Board, Sindh. The six-member body will be headed by MNA Nadeem Afzal Chund and will present its report within two months. The recently inducted State Minister for Labour and Manpower Sheikh Waqas Akram assured of complete help with records.
The case dates to October 2010, when the ministry of labour and Manpower transferred Rs160.23 million into the account of the Workers Welfare Board, Sindh. The money was meant to be used for marriage grants for 2,289 cases.
However, according to an inquiry, the board deliberately ignored instructions from the federal government and diverted the money towards a grant scheme. The board did not keep a record of marriage grant applications and there was no system to check if someone had applied more than once. Even the actual application form was weak.
The workers who benefitted from the money came from select industrial units, which contain the factories where the workers are registered. There are more than ten thousand industrial units of them in Karachi but the beneficiaries came from a total of 98 only. Out of this, there was further selection, with 17 cases coming from the Landhi-Korangi industrial units and 81 from the SITE-West and North Karachi Industrial area. Other industrial units such as Pakistan Steel Mills, National Refinery and many other multinationals, who are major contributors to the fund, have been totally ignored without any proper justification.
This first inquiry was based on random and not detailed checking, leading to the assumption that if officials went through all the applications, a majority of them would prove false. It appears that the people who got the grants came from select collective bargaining agents (CBAs) or unions, who in cahoots with the board’s staff successfully distributed the money among most of the unqualified applicants. Some beneficiaries did not even confirm whether they received the money.
The inquiry officer, who is a grade 21 police officer, suggested that the federal government needs to transfer seasoned officers well versed in government rules and regulations to change the board.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 20th, 2011.
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