ISLAMABAD: The postal department suffered a loss of Rs559 million due to fraud and misappropriation during the past five years.

Pakistan Post Director General Mashal Khan disclosed this during a meeting of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Communications, on Tuesday.

He said 538 cases of embezzlement and misappropriation had been unearthed and Rs107m recovered from guilty officials. Disciplinary action, he said, had been taken against them.

Cases against the accused had been registered with police, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), he said.

The parliamentary committee asked officials concerned to take necessary measures for controlling fraud and consult NAB and the FIA for the recovery of embezzled money.

It also instructed Pakistan Post to follow the banking system for blocking frauds.

The postal service’s chief said 405 new post offices had been opened and 584 closed during the period, 1,666 people had been appointed on a regular basis, 178 on contracts and 1,007 as daily wagers in various pay scales.

The parliamentarians stressed the need for training facilities for all officials to keep them abreast of modern skills and requirements of the future.

MNA Sufyan Yusuf chaired the meeting.

Published in Dawn, April 15th, 2015

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