The complaints alleged that these officials were involved in black marketing urea in the open market after siphoning off the commodity from bags supplied through the warehouses. PHOTO: FILE
Uncovering a nest of corruption, special teams from the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) Rawalpindi zone raided and sealed warehouses belonging to the National Fertilizer Corporation (NFC) and Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) in Kasur and Karachi on Tuesday.
The raids came after a slew of complaints filed with NAB alleged that certain officials of the two corporations were involved in massive corruption by supplying under-weight bags of urea. The complaints alleged that these officials were involved in black marketing urea in the open market after siphoning off the commodity from bags supplied through the warehouses.
Acting on the complaints, NAB had formed two special teams under directions of Regional Director General Subah Saqib. The two teams checked urea bags in surprise raids at the warehouses and found that the allegations were substantive.
“Thousands of urea bags were packed with 4 to 5 kilogrammes of sand, sandstone and other such stuff that were lying in the warehouses, ready to be supplied,” said a NAB official.
One team of the accountability watchdog, headed by Additional Director Flt. Lt Fahim Qureshi, raided the NFC warehouse in Kasur and uncovered thousands of underweight urea bags. Every 50 Kg urea bag was packed 4-5 Kg less than its actual weight. The required weight was compensated by packing sand, sandstone and other such materials in the urea bags, the NAB official said.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 7th, 2013.
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