Probe opened into Rs41m fund scam

HYDERABAD:

The Sindh Anti Corruption Establishment has started preliminary investigation into the alleged embezzlement of Rs41 million funds by a female officer of Sindh Irrigation and Drainage Authority (SIDA). In a letter addressed to SIDA earlier this week, the record of the entire project of Akram Canal's rehabilitation has been demanded.

The project included, as its vital component, the payment of compensations to owners of residential, commercial and other properties whose structures, built on encroached land along the canal, were to be demolished. The officer in question, BPS-18 Shakeela Laghari has been accused by the authority of making 12 fake entries in the list of compensation beneficiaries against whom Rs41 million were allegedly embezzled.

Read: FIA uncovers fake passport, ID scam

Meanwhile, the Sindh Irrigation Department on February 15 asked SIDA that instead of lodging FIR against Laghari and her subordinate Maaz Effandi at Cantt police station, the FIR should be lodged with ACE. The same correspondence also objected to the act of SIDA's board whose 58th meeting rejected the harassment charges by Laghari against an officer of SIDA.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 20^th 2024.