September 15, 2007	Saturday	Ramazan 2, 1428

NAROWAL, Sept 14: There are several complaints of embezzlements in construction of roads by the Highway department officials which are going on unnoticed by the authorities concerned.

The complaints suggest that the Narowal district officer roads and his subordinates had so far embezzled over Rs10 million by using substandard material in the construction of roads and other development projects and withdrawing payments against fictitious projects throughout the district.

District Nazim Dr Naimat Ali Javed confirmed that he had received several complaints against the department officials and that he had also written to the Punjab Communication and Works (C&W) Department high-ups to take action against the delinquents, but to no avail.

According to such complaints, enlistment of fake contractors and firms is another channel of corruption in the department as its employees with the connivance of their superiors run their own construction firms in fake names, actually being run by their front men, and they all make hay while the sun shines.

The Dawn has learnt that the district government had allocated Rs30.8 million for repair and maintenance of several roads in 2006-2007.

According to sources, the Roads Department officials allegedly embezzled Rs1.060 million from the funds allocated to repair Zafarwal Chowk to Old Kutchery, Rs1.935 million from Old Kutchery to Eidgah Chowk and Rs0.915 million from Dhabli Wala to Bobak Marali roads. Similarly, they allegedly made Rs0.381 million from the funds allocated to construct Zia Road and Rs2.7 million from Tola Road in Shakargarh and Rs0.698 million from the funds allocated to repair road passing through Domala, sources added.

Also, the highway department officials allegedly misappropriated an amount of Rs2.89 million by drawing payment for carrying out repair and maintenance work on fictitious sites as indeed no repair work had been carried out at all. Likewise, Rs0.648 million were drawn for installation of milestones alongside the roads, which were never installed.

An employee of the department allegedly withdrew a fudge payment worth millions of rupees through a firm registered in his front man’s name to construct a roadside drainage in Nonar, the native village of Federal Health Minister Muhammad Naseer Khan. Similar other incidents of corruption and malpractices rampant at the office of district officer roads have also been reported.

The district government had allocated Rs138.326 million for the construction of 125-kilometre-long 83 roads in the district in 2006-2007 but the department could complete only 50 roads at a cost of Rs128.106 million while the remaining 33 are yet to complete and only earthwork had been carried out at the sites.

All the newly-constructed roads are substandard and the work in progress is also far behind the specifications mentioned in their construction contracts, while the contractors have got cleared their payments in collusion with the officials concerned.

There were 34 construction firms enlisted with the department but, according to complaints, none of them fulfilled the enlistment criteria. Most of them are fictitious and enlisted on fake documents and lacked required equipment and staff, which is necessary as per rules.

On the other hand, a sizeable number of construction machinery vehicles of the department have become non-functional either because of a lack of proper maintenance and repair or because of depreciation and dereliction.

District Nazim Dr Naimat Ali Javed told Dawn that he had received several corruption and malpractices complaints against the highway officials.

He said a few months back he had visited the under-construction Chatter Road in Shakargarh, which was to be completed at a cost of Rs1.612 million, but there was no contractor working on the site. He said he found some employees of the department working on the site.

He said he took a serious notice of the incident and wrote to the Punjab C&W secretary for an action against District Officer Roads Malik Muhammad Aslam, SDO Ejaz Ahmed and Overseer Muhammad Shahid But, but no action had been taken so far.

When contacted, District Officer Roads Malik Muhammad Aslam refused to comment.