Money for nothing: Clique in PHA finds novel way to mint millions

Investigation into alleged illegal hiring, fund collection, embezzlement under way

ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Housing and Works has unearthed a group of Pakistan Housing Authority (PHA) staffers who have illegally hired 285 employees that have been on payroll for the last three years.

In a novel money-minting strategy, housing ministry sources said that in in 2012, some officials in PHA’s maintenance wing hired some 285 low-cadre officials with different job titles as daily wagers.

The decision to hire the officials was only touched upon in a board meeting, and never again.

“The officials are so influential in PHA that nobody is able to nail them down,” said an official privy to the development.

As the new hiring was done without approval from the government via the Finance Division, the officials came up with a novel way to cover the added wage bill. “A government colony in Sector G-10 was selected, and the residents were informed that they will pay Rs500 per house for the ‘new’ plumbers, electricians, and other support staff,” the officer stated.

Meanwhile, the said group started getting their own share from those salaries as well. Another official at the ministry shared that on paper, the new staffers were hired on wages higher than what they were paid, with the senior officials pocketing the difference. So if someone had been hired at Rs25,000, he was paid Rs 19,000, with the rest going into the ‘shady kitty’.

However, none of them was appointed or given the job as the owners of the houses were told about the services they were being offered. The PHA clique continued to do so until some owners of the houses sought court help as they were paying the amount but not getting the services in return.

There is no record of payments by the owners of the houses, salary receipts or any other log book for data and record management, according to ministry officials.

Hence, the homeowners refused to submit the amount against services they were not getting. Meanwhile, some of the new hires also moved court as they were not receiving salaries or were getting paid late.

The employees usually just came to the PHA building in Blue Area to sign in and would do nothing beyond clerical support work.

The issue came to the light recently when the aggrieved employees went to Housing Minister Akram Khan Durrani’s house and pleaded for the salaries. After holding a meeting with the PHA board of directors, the minister directed the ministry secretary to form a committee and warned that everybody involved in this case will be brought to book. The minister also said that all cases of dubious officials would be forwarded to the Federal Investigation Authority and the National Accountability Bureau after a committee completes its report on which officials are involved in the scheme.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 27^th, 2015.