18 February 2004	Wednesday	26 Zilhaj 1424

LAHORE, Feb 17: The Anti-Corruption Establishment, Punjab, has decided to appoint deputy directors in all districts of the province to improve its working.

Talking to Dawn here on Tuesday, ACE director Mohammad Aslam Ghuman said the DDs would be appointed in three months. He said the chief minister had already endorsed 50 per cent recruitment through the Punjab Public Service Commission.

At present, he said a circular officer of BPS-16 was responsible to hold inquiries in a district, and he often faced problems in initiating inquiries against a senior government official.

He said the department had established a vigilance wing last month to monitor the activities of the ACE staff. He hoped it would help identify the black sheep in the department.

He said the scope of the ACE was being expanded to deal with those corruption cases in which big fish were involved. Meanwhile, two new ACE circle offices have been approved in Bahawalpur and Sargodha. At present, the ACE has four circle offices in the province.

Lahore division office covers Kasur, Okara and Sheikhupura; Rawalpindi division handles the cases from Jhelum, Attock, Chakwal, Mandi Bahauddin and Gujrat; Faisalabad division covers Sargodha, Khushab, Mianwali and Toba Tek Singh; and Multan division deals the cases of 13 districts which include Bahawalpur, Bahawalnagar and Dera Ghazi Khan.