MULTAN, April 7: Agriculture Engineering Department officials are allegedly supplying substandard diesel to the department’s main store in Multan which was to be recovered from them as a penalty for embezzling fuel, sources have revealed to Dawn.

The department provided bulldozers to farmers on rent for land levelling. The government subsidised diesel to farmers who had to pay only Rs385 an hour the rent against the Rs1,100 rent for commercial purposes.

Even though bulldozer supervisors were authorised to keep 1,000 liter diesel in their custody, many of them allegedly managed to get the diesel more than the allowed quantity from the department’s store.

Sources said the government took stock of irregularities after receiving many complaints and decided to end the subsidy on the fuel on March 10, 2008. Later, the department directed all supervisors to return the extra or leftover diesel to the store.

Sources said that in 2005 the record of the store was ‘burnt’ after it was proved that diesel had been stolen from here.

When the government abolished the subsidy on the product used in bulldozers for land leveling, it was decided the the entire diesel would be returned to the main store. The supervisors who had drawn the fuel worth millions, however, were unable to return the diesel. Now, they are supplying substandard diesel, which is available in the market at cheaper rates. Source said a junior clerk working as the storekeeper would be made a “scapegoat” for collecting substandard fuel from the supervisors.

According to sources, making a junior official a “scapegoat” to cover up financial scams is not new to this department. They said some senior officials of the department had embezzled Rs3.5 million in the government provident fund from 1995 to 1999, but clerk Basharat Pervaiz was terminated for the fraud.

Assistant Agriculture Officer Chaudhry Abdul Razaq Rangila, Assistant Agriculture Officer Shahid Pervaiz, Agriculture Engineer Workshop Amjad Aleem, Agriculture Engineer Workshop Mian Hassan Raza, Niaz Ahmed and Account Office officials Mahr Aslam Sial and Muhammad Mansha were earlier dismissed for the scam. Later, they all were reinstated but Mr Pervaiz had to lose the job.

Similarly, Muhammad Amin Saleemi, diesel store in charge, was terminated for stealing the diesel worth millions some years back. The senior staff, however, came to his help and “penalized” him only with a Rs500,000 recovery. In such another incident of diesel theft, diesel store in charge Muhammad Ajmal was dismissed for embezzling Rs3.2 million. Official inquiries reduced the sum to Rs700,000. Ajmal paid the fine and made his way to reinstatement as he had reportedly threatened to make public the corruption of senior officers, sources added.

Agriculture Engineering Department Director Mian Ejaz Kamboh says that earlier field supervisors were appointed as store keepers on the main store but after their irregularities, the government decided to appoint clerks at the main stores. He said that he was unaware if the supervisors had supplied substandard diesel to the department. He said that he would send the fuel sample for a laboratory testing, if needed.