THATTA: An investigation is learnt to have been launched into an alleged racket involving over Rs110 million disbursed as ‘arrears’ among education, health and police departments’ employees.

An unspecified amount, running into millions of rupees, has already been disbursed to several hundred employees serving in Thatta and Sujawal districts through the district accounts office at Makli.

Sources in the education department confided to Dawn that the heavy amount of money was transferred to each recipient of the arrears directly into his/her account without any official letter being issued to any of the individuals.

The alleged racket came to light when some honest employees of the education department, puzzled over transfer of a big amount in their accounts, approached the treasury office to know about it. One of these employees even redeposited what he believed ‘erroneously transferred’ amount.

They brought their bank statements to the treasury office and inquired about transfer of the unclaimed money to their accounts.

The employees, most of them teachers, including Niaz Ahmed Shah, Tufail Memon and Mohammad Amin, also possessed their pay slips and the relevant applications for payment of the recently granted allowance and the arrears to sort out the issue.

They said a large number of their colleagues had received similar amounts deposited in their respective bank accounts.

Niaz Ahmed Shah, a high school teacher at the Government High School, Khizarabad, in Sujawal district had his bank statement showing Rs111,996 transferred to his account on June 30. He said at least six other teachers at the school had also received the same amount.The finance department had issued a notification (No. FD(SR-III) 5/30-2006) on March 13, 2014 directing all district accounts offices to disburse the ‘teaching allowance’ category-wise and transfer the amount to their accounts along with their salaries. Through an elaborate and amended notification, all teachers were entitled to the allowance with effect from April 7, 2010 as per their qualification. There was no mention of ‘arrears’ in any of the notifications.As an investigation into the alleged racket was initiated with confidentiality, sources in the education, health and police departments said that there seemed to be a treasury official in connivance with some unscrupulous elements within the departments transferred the money to several hundred employees and extorted 50 per cent of the deposited money from many of them. The sources said that their plan faced a setback when some honest employees approached the treasury office and revealed the astonishing facts.

Tufail Memon, a primary school teacher serving at the Government Boys Primary School, in Thatta district said a sum of Rs448,300 was transferred to his account. He said he redeposited an amount, which appeared to be much more than his claimed arrears, with the treasury on Aug 18.

The naib qasid at at Government High School, Khizarabad, Muhammad Amin, said he was astonished when an official at the treasury office told him that the amount transferred to his account pertained to the arrears of ‘teaching allowance’. He said the official could not explain how a naib qasid could be granted the teaching allowance.

It is learnt that both federal and provincial authorities have initiated their own investigation into the affair.

This reporter spoke to the senior district and treasury officers as well as those of the departments concerned to seek their comments but none of them appeared ready to talk on the alleged racket.

Published in Dawn, September 1st, 2014

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