GUJRAT: An official of the district accounts office, Kharian branch, has allegedly embezzled at least Rs17 million and fled around two weeks ago.

Since then the routine work of issuance of stamp papers for litigants has come to a halt.

The matter came to light when Kharian Deputy Accounts Officer Ghulam Basheer Turabi, who was officer in-charge of the tehsil’s treasury office, did not attend the office for two days till Sept 8 as he had handed over keys of the treasury to another staff member of the district accounts officer.

After that, District Accounts Officer Faiz Mohiuddin asked another official to assume charge of the Kharian office who declined to comply with the orders without audit.

In the meantime, the matter was brought to the notice of Gujrat District Coordination Officer Liaquat Ali Chattha who asked the provincial authorities to send a special audit team to Gujrat.

The audit showed that the deputy accounts officer had embezzled proceeds from sale of stamp papers worth Rs10 million, besides making off with cash and valuables including gold ornaments valued at Rs5.3 million. The valuables had been kept in the treasury by the local police and courts as a stopgap arrangement since the valuables were actually to be returned to the heirs following court verdicts.

The official had never been checked or audited by any district or provincial authorities during the last 18 months and he continued with embezzlement by not depositing the sale proceeds with the treasury.

As per law, the litigants have to deposit the cash amount of stamp papers with the National Bank of Pakistan and then present a copy of the receipt to the accounts office or treasury for the issuance of stamp papers in the presence of the district accounts officer since there has been two keys of every treasury at the district and tehsil levels as the lock cannot be opened until both the keys are utilised.

One key is to be kept by the district accounts officer and the other by the senior clerk but in the case of Kharian office both the keys were reportedly kept by Mr Turabi illegally and that too with the alleged blessings of the district authorities of his department.

Though the provincial audit department had issued clear instructions for the audit of the accounts office after every six months but it had never happened in case of the Kharian office as whenever Mr Turabi was asked for the audit he either went on leave or would say that the record was incomplete.

A case has been registered against the suspect under Section 409 of the PPC with Kharian Saddar police station on the report of district accounts officer.

DCO Liaquat Chattha said he had already ordered an inquiry into the scam. He said another official had been posted in the Kharian office so that the litigants could not suffer further.

Published in Dawn, September 19th, 2014