Five officials fired for corruption

Officials withdraw money to pay rent for non-existent labs.

LAHORE: Five Environment Protection Department (EPD) officials, including a former director general, were issued termination notices on December 11 for embezzling Rs3.5 million.

Another official was demoted for five years on the same charges.

According to a notification available with The Express Tribune, former EPD DG Dr Shagufta Shahjehan and the five other officials withdrew Rs3.5 million from the Accountant General of Punjab’s office to pay rent for non-existent laboratories at Gujranwala, Sialkot, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Murree and Rahim Yar Khan in 2008-09 and 2009-2010.

The EPD took possession of buildings for three laboratories in Gujranwala, Murree and Faisalabad in March 2009. Two buildings were rented in Rawalpindi and Sialkot in April 2009 and one in Rahim Yar Khan in July 2009.

However, official records show that Rs3.5 million had been withdrawn from accounts against rent for the buildings since July 2008.

The officials found guilty include EPA deputy director (technical) Amir Farooq, district officer M Saleem Pal, Assistant Director (Labs) M Farooq Alam, Assistant Director (Implementation) Shahfaq Saeed Farooqi and Superintendent Zaheer Ahmed Khan. The officials were found to have made bogus lease agreements on the directions of the DG.

The inquiry was conducted by District Management Group officer Farkhanda Wasim Afzal and Population Secretary Javed Akhtar under the Punjab Employees Efficiency, Discipline and Accountability Act, 2006 (PEEDA 2006).

The inquiry report submitted on July 20, 2012, found the officials guilty of embezzlement.

Mines and Minerals Secretary Shahid Mahmood was appointed hearing officer for the appeal of the six officials. Mahmood also found the charges to be true and recommended that they be removed from service under PEEDA 2006.

The EPD issued termination notices to Shahjehan (BS-20), Farooq (BS-18), Alam (BS-17) and Farooqi (BS-17). Zaheer Ahmed Khan(BS-16) was awarded the major penalty of demotion to lower post and pay scale for five years. Proceedings against Pal abated due to his demise.

The Anti Corruption Establishment (ACE) Punjab has also registered a criminal case against the six officials under Sections 420, 468 and 471 of the Pakistan Penal Code and 5/2/1947 of the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA).

ACE conducted a preliminary inquiry and found the charges to be true. A senior ACE official speaking on condition of anonymity told The Express Tribune that raids were being conducted to arrest the officials but they were in hiding.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 17^th, 2012.