ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Finance was informed on Wednesday that there were around 1,400 ghost employees in the health and education sectors due to mismanagement of funds in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).

The issue of delay in releasing funds by the finance ministry was raised by Senator Hidayatullah and was taken up during the committee’s meeting by its chairman, Senator Saleem Mandviwala.

Senator Hidayatullah said that more than 650 posts were lying vacant in the schools of Fata and all efforts to fill the vacancies had failed mainly due to lack of funds.

“As a result of incomplete infrastructure and system, people who were already employed on paper were not attending their offices and so they should be categorised as ghost employees,” he added.

Responding to his queries, finance secretary Arif Khan said that the matter pertained to the Fata secretariat and the Ministry of States and Frontier Regions, maintaining that the role of the finance ministry was only to release funds as per the procedure.

The committee noted that 7,500 sanctioned posts in Fata should be filled and directed the finance ministry to coordinate with relevant departments in this regard.

The Senate body also discussed a loan write-off scheme for 5,000 widows by the House Building Finance Corporation (HBFC) which was announced by defunct finance minister Ishaq Dar in the budget 2017-18.

Minister of State for Finance Rana Mohammad Afzal said the HBFC was bankrupt as loans were not being repaid by the borrowers. He informed the committee that the finance division had approved Rs500 million as relief for widow borrowers of the HBFC to pay their outstanding loans.

However, Senator Kamil Ali Agha countered the minister’s facts and criticised the HBFC staff for fleecing the borrowers through various means.

Published in Dawn, January 19th, 2018