LAHORE: The Ministry of Water and Power has formed a four-member committee to investigate the Rs289 million Sukuk Bond scam which hit the Water and Power Development Authority in 2009 and to also see how one of the prime accused in the “pre-planned fraud” was subsequently promoted to the exalted position of member (finance) of Wapda.

The committee will fix responsibility and start the process of recovery of Rs180m Sukuk Bond whose cost was later raised by Rs109m on account of interest payment. The committee is required to submit its report by April 10.

The ministerial order is based on a letter (AR/FER/2015-16/9109) by the director general audit (Wapda), which stated that 30 cases of fraud, embezzlement and recoveries had been sent for remedial actions as desired by the Auditor General of Pakistan, but progress on them was still awaited.

Among them is a case relating to outright fraud of Rs180m involving Wapda’s member finance. It was investigated by the authority and responsibility was fixed and process of recoveries clarified.

However, the authority took lenient view and only imposed penalties, without doing anything about recovering the embezzled amount and interest.

According to details of the case, present member (finance) Anwarul Haq was general manager finance (power) at the time of issuance of Sukuk Bond and he duly approved the issuance and transfer of higher denomination in lieu of fake bonds of lower denomination. He was responsible for all approvals made during the fraudulent transactions.

Initially, his name was not in the list of accused, which kept him out of investigation by the FIA. An inquiry was later held against him and the Wapda chairman punished him with “major penalty” for negligence.

“Despite imposition of major penalty for negligence in an extremely important financial matter, he has now been elevated to the topmost position of member finance, which makes him principal decision-maker and adviser on all financial matters of the authority,” said the letter by the director general audit.

The passport of an accused employee (budget and accounts officer), who was declared mastermind of the entire fraud, was taken from him on the suspicion of the fraud but was later returned to him in “mysterious circumstances” apparently to allow him to run away from the country, and he did escape to the UK.

“The criminal responsibility of the fraud was blatantly shifted to junior officers and the senior ones conveniently escaped all sorts of criminal proceedings, apparently in connivance with those at the helm of affairs of Wapda at that point of time,” the letter said.

Under the circumstances, it added, it was advised that the case should be re-inquired at the level of the ministry to fix the responsibility and open criminal investigations afresh by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for recovery of losses.

Published in Dawn, April 1st, 2016