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Real culprit of eating poor’s food still at length
January 28, 2011
According to sources, the project “Tawana Pakistan” , (healthy Pakistan) was aimed to address the nutrition needs of girls between the ages of 5-12 years of high poverty areas of the country and Zubaida Jalal appointed one of her close associate as head of this project in 2005.
Those who pocketed money in the name of fulfilling the nutritional needs of poor girls include the former director general social welfare, a tycoon of food industry and senior officers of federal government.
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It has been almost five years that those who staged a drama of looting the money from national exchequer in the name of a social welfare project are still unpunished thanks to the sightless law.
According to sources, the project “Tawana Pakistan” , (healthy Pakistan) was aimed to address the nutrition needs of girls between the ages of 5-12 years of high poverty areas of the country and Zubaida Jalal appointed one of her close associate as head of this project in 2005.
Those who pocketed money in the name of fulfilling the nutritional needs of poor girls include the former director general social welfare, a tycoon of food industry and senior officers of federal government.
Although Federal Investigation Agency recently had complied its investigation reports in which it had been recommended that those who were involved in the scam would be punished accordingly, strong connections of the culprit, the report is so far a mere piece of paper.
The report revealed that Irfan ullah Khan, Director General of ministry of social welfare was assigned the charge of Officiating as National Project Director of programme “Tawana Pakistan” in 2005.
Irfan ullah Khan was a grade 19 officer of Baluchistan Government, and he replaced Nasir Jalil the then National Project Director of the programme, and was temporarily assigned this post until the final appointment of regular Project Director. He belongs to the same area as that of Zubaida Jalal, and was assigned to run this project on the special advice of the former minister.
A sum of Rs. 3600 millions was approved however an amount of Rs. 1647.30 millions was released for this project.
According to the documents, Irfan ullah and his other associates in violation of the Public Procurement Rules (PPRA) rules signed a contract with M/s Vita Pakistan and its dummy company M/s EM5 Natraceutical and distributed Rs. 275.694 millions and 34.972 millions to these companies respectively.
He signed the comparative statement by declaring M/s Vita Pakistan and EM-5 as lowest bidders in violation of PPRA rules as no bid documents were presented for assessment; and he also signed MoU with the companies without vetting from the law and justice division.
According to documents, Irfan ullah also approved Rs.180 million in advances to the companies without any justification and Bank guarantees. Moreover, he approved 2.8 million cash payment to EM-5 on fake receipt. Besides, despite the fact that the contract cost of Rs. 173.868 millions issued Rs. 275.693 millions to Vita Pakistan, Rs. 34.971 millions to EM-5 and Rs. 4.9 millions to a dummy NGO , Chen Foundation.
Irfan ullah Khan also paid Rs. 74.133 millions to another company M/s Maaza Pakistan out of which an amount of Rs. 51.716 is still outstanding towards the company as M/s Maaza Pakistan is not willing to return this money because of a certain clause of the MoU and duly signed by the National Project Director Irfan ullah Khan.
The documents also revealed that an amount of Rs. 20 million was also paid to renowned actor and artist Firdous Jamal for preparation of documentary of the project, which has so far not been produced. Documents also disclosed that Irfan ullah and his associates generated fake receipts and pocketed millions of rupees. An amount of Rs. 2.162 millions was paid to M/s Office Automation on fake purchases of air conditioners, stationery and furniture.
Another Rs. 3.913 millions was paid to M/s ADS for advertisements, and Rs. 8.7 million to Paramount Business Center on fake receipts, while another amount of Rs. 21.53 millions was paid to MTA Enterprises for repair and maintenance of sub office of the project without any justification; alongwith Rs. 15 million , paid to Ms Global Business, Mahaba Marketing and Ahmed Traders which was later on drawn by the officials of the social welfare ministry.
Documents stated that an amount of Rs. 4.2 millions was paid on fake repair of the vehicles, ironically, what the documents revealed that Irfan ullah Khan also formed a company M/s Zauhras (Pvt) Ltd for baseline survey in Mardan, Pishin etc and disbursed Rs. 9 millions to the company. The company was registered on a fake address Flat No. 20, 2nd Floor Twin City Plaza in sector I/8 Markaz, which is office of Senate Housing Society, the documents revealed.
It is pertinent to mention that the programme Tawana Pakistan was approved by ECNEC in September 2002 with a total cost of Rs. 3600 millions for the period of 54 months.
The Ministry of Women Development, Social Welfare and Special Education through the National Implementation Unit (NIU), Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal, Aga Khan University, various NGSs and District Governments of respective areas , implemented the project.
Initially, Nasir Jalil was appointed as National Project Director of the programme and after his services were terminated, Zubaida Jalal appointed Irfan ullah Khan who was then serving in Baluchistan as Director Social Welfare with the provincial government.
Other associates of Irfan ullah Khan include Aashiq Hussain Sangi, Director Coordination, Muhammad Ashraf, Deputy Director, Shazia Mughees Deputy Director and Zahoor Ahmed Personal Secretary who facilitated and embezzled millions of rupees in the project. When contacted Zubaida Jalal said that she did not have any nexus with Irfan ullah Khan. She said that although he was an official of the same province, as her’s yet his (Irfan ullah Khan’s) appointment was done through Establishment Division.
She, however, admitted receipt of FIA inquiry letter in which she was questioned about the purchases and asked for verification of different bills in connection with purchases of her residence and office. She clarified that her staff had verified all the bills and these bills also approved by the authorities concerned,
Role of Vita Pakistan owners
FIA investigation report also highlighted the role Mehboob Ali Manji, Tanveer Hussain Manji and Naushad Ali Manji the owners of Vita Pakistan in “Tawana Pakistan” scam.
The report stated that “Manjis” submitted fraudulent cheques amounting to Rs. 1.942 million with the bid documents of Vita Pakistan instead of demand draft / pay order despite the fact that they had a balance of less than a million in their accounts. Similarly, they also submitted another cheque with the bid documents of EM-5 instead of demand draft or pay order, while there were only few thousands rupees were available in that account.
The report disclosed that “Manjis” in connivance with the main accused, Irfan ullah Khan obtained contracts of supply of milk and biscuits for his companies Vita Pakistan and EM-5 and obtained Rs. 180 millions from the public exchequer without any bank guarantee. They obtained Rs. 275.693 millions for Vita Pakistan whereas total cost of the contract in terms of MoU has been set Rs. 173.868 millions, but total supply made by Vita Pakistan was worth Rs. 127.454 millions. “Manjis” also got Rs. 34.971 millions for EM-5 and total supply made by EM-5 was 20.583 millions.
The report also unveiled that “Manjis” also established an NGO namely Chen Foundation under the grab of Teacher Training Programme and obtained Rs. 4.9 millions from public exchequer for their NGO in connivance with another official of ministry of social welfare, Muhammad Ashraf. Ashraf made the payment of Rs. 4.9 millions to Muhammad Azeem a cashier of “Manjis” and demanded .9 million rupees from him.
Azeem who is presently in the judicial custody of FIA confessed that he received pay order of Rs. 4 millions from Muhammad Ashraf but on the directions of Mehboob Ali Manji he provide receipt of .9 millions rupees to Ashraf without receiving the said amount. The report recommends that as “Manjis” along with other involved in the scam, had caused loss of multi million rupees to the National exchequer they deserved an indictment for registering of case against them. The deal was done in connivance with the Chief Nutritionist of Planning Commission
FIA also approached interior ministry to seek necessary approval for registering a criminal case against a grade 20 officer, Muhammad Ayub, Chief of nutrition section of Planning Commission in connection with “Tawana Pakistan” scam, who was a member of that procurement committee, and who awarded the contract to the Vita Pakistan and EM-5 in a non transparent manner.
According to the investigation report a tender for supply of milk and biscuits to the designated Girls Primary Schools of District Badin, Gwadar, D.G. Khan, and Tank was floated by the main accused , Irfan ullah Khan.
Six companies namely Haleeb Foods, EM-5 Nutraceutical, Vita Pakistan, Premier Dairies, M/s Muhammad Ayub and M/s Gandahara were participated in the bidding. The bids were opened on December 07, 2006 in absence of bid documents, without predetermination of the special or general condition of the contract and criteria or specification of the item Vita Pakistan and EM-5 declared lowest bidders in non-transparent manner.
The document revealed that Muhammad Ayub as a member of scrutiny committee signed the comparative statement by declaring M/s Vita Pakistan and EM-5 as lowest bidders in violation of public procurement rules (PPRA) 2004, as no bid documents were prepared for assessment of the bids. The bid documents submitted by Vita Pakistan and EM-5 were not accompanied by demand draft or pay order equivalent to two per cent of the bid amount.
Muhammad Ayub, documents said, joined the inquiry and stated that he participated in the pre-bid conference and not in the bid opening proceedings. He signed the bid documents as the committee received these while no decision regarding the lowest bidder was made in meeting. The documents stated that, however, the management of Tawana Pakistan project removed the relevant documents from the official file.
FIA recommends that in the light of statement of Muhammad Ayub, further probe is required for the determination of his role. Therefore, the role of Muhammad Ayub will be thrashed out during the course of investigations. A senior official of FIA said that since Muhammad Ayub is a senior serving government official therefore before registering a criminal case and arresting him we required an NOC from ministry of interior. He said that FIA had already initiated process to obtain an NOC for registering an FIR against Chief Nutrition Planning Commission and as soon as we receive NOC we register a case and arrest him accordingly.
It is pertinent to mention that so far, FIA had arrested only those official and employees who were working at the lower echelon. Irfan ullah Khan had been declared as proclaimed offenders while no arrest has so far been made of those who had really embezzled huge amount from the national exchequer: as this was not a foreign funding, but was funded through Public Sector Development Programme or the valuable money of the tax payers.
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