Food department official caught accepting bribe

ACE officials caught DFC Faisal Sharif, red-handed while receiving bribe from AFC Ikram

LAHORE: An official from the food department had his boss arrested for demanding a bribe, after filing a complaint with Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE).

Assistant Food Controller (AFC) Rana Khalid Akram approached the local police station to submit an application against his boss, Sahiwal District Food Controller (DFC) Faisal Sharif, alleging that he demanded a bribe of Rs0.4 million, while threatening to transfer him. In a premeditated move, the AFC agreed to pay the bribe to the DFC over dinner at a local restaurant on the evening of June 5.

Subsequently, ACE officials caught DFC Faisal Sharif, red-handed while receiving the bribe from AFC Ikram.

Officials also recovered an additional Rs0.12 million from his possession and arrested the officer. Since then, he has been locked up in Central Jail Sahiwal.



Sources claimed that the DFC was also allegedly taking money from the amount minted from farmers. Earlier, there was a dispute over the distribution of the money collected from farmers in the form of additional wheat. Sources claimed that the money was allegedly distributed among all the officials,  from top to bottom.

District Food Controllers work under the administrative command of the Food Directorate located in the provincial capital. Faisal Sharif, the suspect in the case, was transferred several times in a short span of a few weeks before the start of wheat procurement campaign this year, sources added.

Both, the provincial food secretary and the food department director did not respond to the allegations of rampant corruption going on in the department and other similar charges.

This incident should be seen as a tip of an iceberg, said a retired official from the food department wishing to remain anonymous. The corruption has spread its vicious tentacles in the department despite the much-touted corruption-free environment in the province, he added.

He maintained that the money usurped during the wheat procurement campaign was allegedly distributed among officials, from top to bottom. District and provincial officials are all involved in corruption, he emphasised. He stressed the need to unearth the dishonesty and malpractice shown by officials.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 13^th, 2018.