Nepotism: Petroleum ministry misusing funds

Secretary orders probe into allocation of hefty allowances for trainees.

ISLAMABAD: Favouritism is eating up public money at the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources where rules are being violated in nominating trainees and allocating money from the training fund established by oil and gas exploration companies for sending government officials for training abroad, sources say.

Petroleum Concessions Director General Sher Khan is the custodian of the training fund and officials working under him are empowered to issue cheques to those going on foreign training.

Recently, the petroleum ministry tried to send three officials on training in a private UK institution – Stratford College of Management. However, the move was foiled by an official of the ministry who refused to release the money amounting to over Rs3.8 million. But this did not come without a cost as the official was later removed from his post.

According to documents, Petroleum Secretary Ijaz Chaudhry had approved nomination of the three officials – Deputy Secretary Afzal Chaudhry, his Personal Secretary Qamar Ali Khan and Mustafa Ali Khan who was surprisingly hired in the Director General Petroleum Concessions from a private company – LMK Resources.

Mustafa Ali is the brother of the personal secretary to petroleum secretary and is working as an economic and financial consultant in the Director General Petroleum Concessions in addition to his duties in LMK Resources.

The Establishment Division has laid down a detailed procedure for appointment of consultants but in the case of Mustafa the guidelines were ignored as he was working in a private company, sources say.

The three men were to receive oil and gas management training from February 27 to March 10 aimed at capacity building to run key gas pipeline projects like Iran-Pakistan project, Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India project and liquefied natural gas (LNG) import projects.

The two brothers, who were going to attend the training course, were not on any assignments relating to gas imports.

The petroleum ministry was to pay a fee of 5,000 pound sterling and daily allowance of $6,300 to each of the three officials for the training course.

According to sources, the trainees can get an allowance of only $100 to $200 per day according to guidelines of the finance ministry, contrary to the huge amount the petroleum ministry had allocated.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Petroleum Secretary Ijaz Chaudhry said, “I had approved their names to send them abroad for training. However, now I have taken notice of Mustafa Ali Khan’s deputation in the Director General Petroleum Concessions from a private company.”

Chaudhry said former petroleum secretary had issued orders for Mustafa’s deputation in April 2011. There were also allegations that though some officials received money from the training fund, they did not attend the courses.

Qamar Ali Khan was also nominated for a course in April 2011 at Stratford College of Management.

According to the college website, there are no routine seminars and for other programmes the fee for one year is in the range of 3,500 to 5,000 pound sterling. However, the petroleum ministry paid a fee of 6,500 pound sterling for a 10-day course and daily allowance of $4,950 in addition to airfare of Rs188,105, sources say.

Last year, the petroleum secretary received $1,800 in daily allowance during his visit to Moscow. He also attended International Oil and Gas Summer School held in the UK from August 1-5 and received daily allowance of $3,150 and course fee of 5,100 pounds in addition to airfare of Rs192,154.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 8^th, 2012.