FTO says it received complaint that senior FBR officials were misusing confiscated vehicles. PHOTO: FILE
Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) has directed Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to investigate the alleged misuse of official vehicles by some senior officers of the revenue division, their friends and relatives.
“The FTO secretariat requires the FBR’s position on the specific points raised in a written statement of allegations that Ali Arshad Hakeem, the then chairman FBR, Muhammad Riaz Khan, the then member customs, Husnain Arshad, member Admin, were requisitioning vehicles from all fields formations/warehouses for distribution among their friends and relatives. It is alleged that DG intelligence customs was providing most of the vehicles,” says an official FTO memo sent to the FBR.
The memo says that the FTO received a written statement of allegations of misuse of confiscated vehicles – Land Cruisers, Prados, Cherokee and Lexus, Jeep etc – by senior officers of the Revenue Division/FBR, who had already got their official vehicles monetised and drawing their operational costs as per the monetisation scheme.
The FTO stated that it made discreet inquiries to ascertain the allegations.
“A number of officials of relevant field offices were informally contacted and most of them confirmed the allegations as correct. The allegation of provision of a car by Customs Intelligence Lahore to be got repaired and refurbished at a workshop in Peshawar was informally confirmed by a reliable inside source as 100% correct,” it says.
The FTO states that some of the inside sources provided a lead that official fleet cards and extra fuel slips have been used for providing fuel for such vehicles.
“In some cases the officials responsible for managing fuel and repair costs of official vehicles used to write the names of the drivers of misused vehicles on the extra fuel slips issued by them as a precaution for their own security against eventuality of detection of the ongoing abuse.”
The FTO notes that misuse of official vehicles by senior officials, who had already availed the benefit of monetisation scheme, was also reported as rampant.
“After being satisfied about the prima facie of the allegations, the FTO takes suo motu notice of these allegations in terms of section 9(1) of the FTO Ordinance, 2000,” the letter says, adding that the alleged misuse of official vehicles is needed to be properly investigated.
The letter says that in addition to above, 20 specific cases of alleged misuse are listed in the statement of allegations.
“The DRs are asked to furnish reply to these specific allegations,” it says.
The FTO notes that instead of adequately determining the facts and correctly reporting these to the FTO secretariat, the allegations are either denied straightaway or evasive replies made by the customs authorities.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 16th, 2014.
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