ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Rawalpindi, distributed on Thursday Rs140 million recovered amount among 63 people and four organisations affected by five different scams.

The people were victims of a scam unearthed in Islamabad in 2005. A private company launched a housing scheme without getting an NOC and failed to give them plots.

The organisations which became victims of fraud, non-payment of dues and embezzlement are: Bank of Punjab, Islamabad Electric Supply Company (Iesco), National Fertilisers Marketing Company (NFMC) and Capital Development Authority (CDA).

The cheques were distributed among the victims by NAB Deputy Chairman retired Admiral Saeed Ahmed Sargana at a ceremony held at the NAB Rawalpindi headquarters.

Admiral Sargana said NAB was making all-out efforts to recover the looted money from the swindlers. He urged people not to invest in bogus and unregistered schemes. People should invest only in the government-approved banking system and investment companies, he said, adding that the bureau was proactively pursuing corruption cases to clear the backlog and taking concrete measures to eradicate corruption from society.

Director General NAB Rawalpindi retired Col Shahzad Anwer Bhatti advised people to be vigilant and check credentials of investment companies before handing them over their hard earned money.

In the NFMC case, its employees and contractors had embezzled imported urea from the company’s godowns in Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan. NAB recovered Rs104.582 million and paid Rs78.4m as a first instalment on Thursday.

In the Bank of Punjab case, construction firm BNP had obtained Rs1.38 billion business loan from the bank in July 2007, but violated pre-determined terms and conditions, thus defaulting on the amount.

An amount of Rs1.628bn was determined as liability against the BNP which it opted to pay through voluntary return to NAB. On Thursday, the bureau handed over a cheque of Rs29.1m to the bank as an instalment.

The Iesco case relates to outstanding electricity dues. NAB recovered Rs1.08m from power defaulters and handed over a cheque of the same amount to the company.

The bureau distributed cheques of Rs15.18m among the 63 victims of the Capital Builders Housing Scheme scam as a second instalment. The first instalment of Rs100.74m has already been paid.

Chaudhry Tassaduq Pervez, the principal accused and owner of Capital Builders, along with others launched a housing scheme — New Islamabad Garden — in Sector C-17, Islamabad.

According to the NAB investigation, the management of Capital Builders booked more than 3000 plots in the scheme in 2005 without getting no-objection certificate from the Capital Development Authority.

The company owned only 305 kanals of land at the time of booking of plots. NAB investigated the matter on complaints received from general public. In order to avoid legal proceedings and arrest, Tassaduq Pervez submitted an application for plea bargain which was accepted by NAB and subsequently approved by the Accountability Court Islamabad.

The accused paid Rs138.67m against the claims made by about 424 victims.

In another scam sent to NAB by the Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly, the CDA had allotted a plot to Manawa Construction Company on lease in Sector F-10, Islamabad, in 1992. The company defaulted on premium payment and surcharge amount.

NAB determined Rs24m as liability against the company which was fully recovered. In the first phase, an amount of Rs15.2m was paid to the CDA on Thursday.

Published in Dawn, May 16th, 2014