A female officer of the Sindh Irrigation and Drainage Authority (SIDA) who had leveled a harassment allegation against another officer of the authority has been accused of embezzling Rs41 million funds in connivance with another contractual staff.
The 58th meeting of the SIDA’s board on Thursday also ordered the registration of FIR against BPS- 18 Sociologist Shakeela Laghari besides dismissing her sexual harassment accusation against Naeem Memon, General Manager of Finance.
Laghari was not available for comment but her harassment plea is fixed for hearing on January 30 before the ombudsman. The board’s meeting, presided over by Chairman SIDA Qabool Muhammad Khatian, directed the authority to lodge an FIR with Sindh Anti Corruption Establishment within 24 hours, nominating Laghari and Ma’az Effandi, contractual inspector works in SIDA.
The accused officials alleg- edly embezzled the funds in the garb of paying compensation to 12 persons whose houses were demolished as part of anti-encroachment drive along the banks of Akram Canal in Hyderabad.
Citing a December 1, 2023, inquiry report, the board meeting was told that Laghari had not only confessed her involvement in tampering with the official record of the beneficiaries with the support of Effandi, but she also returned Rs8 million to the authority.
According to her statement, Effandi was given Rs20 million from that allegedly embezzled amount. The SIDA had fixed Rs1,134 per square foot compensation for concrete residential, commercial and other types of structures.
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The semiconcrete structures were supposed to be paid Rs523 and Rs310, respectively. The job description of Laghari, according to SIDA’s spokesman Hizbullah Mangrio, is to ensure implementation of the environmental, human and social safeguards during execution of the authority’s projects.
She has been working for SIDA since 2009. Effandi, meanwhile, has been evading to appear before the inquiry committees, the board observed. An official of the authority informed that the list of the beneficiaries was prepared by a consultant company while the responsibility of Laghari and her subordinates was limited to recommending the names of the people who were going to be affected.
However, the inquiry proceedings seem to have steered clear of fixing any responsibility on the consultant. The board further observed that Laghari had previously leveled identical accusations of harassment against other officials of the authority but the inquiries against those complaints also failed to find substance in her charges.
According to Laghari, Memon had sent her a sexually insinuating and harassing message when she posted her photograph on SIDA’s official WhatsApp group during her visit to Islamabad with her colleagues on November 22, 2021.
She filed harassment complaint over this incident around 25 months later. She also blamed Memon for intending to send her to the MD with some bad motive when she requested Memon to allot her an official vehicle.
She also alleged that she was deprived of a laptop, a vehicle and the project allowances. The inquiry committee underlined that she failed to corroborate her allegations with evidence or testimonies of the colleagues.
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