Pilferage: Timber worth Rs40m stolen, termination of 80 officials requested

More than 10,000 trees were stolen in the past seven months at various auctions.

FAISALABAD:

More than 10,000 trees worth Rs40 million were found stolen from the Forest Department’s auction site on Tuesday. Action has been recommendation against 80 officials including 12 sub-divisional officers of the department, an officer of the Forest Department told The Express Tribune on Friday.

He said that the embezzlement was uncovered when the department held an auction on Tuesday. The trees had been stolen over the last seven months, he said.

The district officer told The Express Tribune that he had sent written complaints to the forest secretary and chiefs of forest conservation in Lahore and Faisalabad, requesting them to initiate a departmental inquiry into the theft.

The DO wrote that as many as 10,000 trees worth Rs40 million had been stolen over the past seven months at various auctions. Nearly 80 officials of the department including SDOs, block officers and forest guards were involved.
The DO has recommended that these officials should be terminated from service.

More than 100 department employees have been removed from service in the past few months, but that has not stopped the theft of trees.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 28^th, 2013.