HARIPUR, July 14: The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Information Technology on Friday voiced concern over financial and administrative affairs of the Telephone Industries of Pakistan (TIP) and ordered a probe into an allegedly unauthorised purchase of 35,000 sets of Wireless Local Loop (WLL) system for Rs142 million.

“It’s a clear case of corruption and commission as the factory’s management procured WLLS’s sets without any written orders by the PTCL and also without any agreement on the part of the client, which caused a loss of Rs142 million that rose to Rs170 million with bank interest,” observed the 14-member committee.

The members of the committee — headed by Minister of State for Information Technology Syed Tahir Shah — Giyan Singh and Mir Ayaz Khan Jhakhrani were on a fact-finding tour of TIP following reports of financial losses and its prospective privatisation.

The committee took strong exception to TIP’s financial crisis and attributed it to the large size of its management, its delayed response to production orders and mismanagement.

The chairman directed TIP’s managing director Abid Hussain Shah to hold an inquiry into the ‘purchase scam’ and submit its report within 15 days after charge-sheeting all members of TIP’s purchase committee.

The NA body suggested punishment for the purchase committee members, including removal from service and recovering the loss from them besides referring the case to the National Accountability Bureau.

The committee also suggested reducing the size of the managerial staff which, according to a member, was one of the root causes of turning a profit-earning unit into a loss-making one.

The committee chairmen told reporters that the matter would be referred to NAB after fixation of responsibility. He said the factory’s purchase committee had committed a blunder by buying 35,000 WLL sets without any approval of the PTCL.

About privatisation of the factory, he said the committee would make efforts to bring TIP back to its feet so that 2,000 families associated with it could be saved from economic hardship.

Earlier, TIP’s managing director informed the NA’s committee that the factory had a bank borrowing of Rs1,075 million for which it was paying a monthly interest of Rs3 million.

He said the factory had been running into loss since 1994 had its total loss stood at Rs811 million against a working capital of Rs909 millions.