HYDERABAD: Three bank officers were placed under suspension on the charges of involvement in financial embezzlement of Rs70 million in gold loan scheme in the National Bank of Pakistan’s Qasimabad branch. The prime suspect in the scam has already absconded.

NBP regional head Rafiq Ahmed Bhurgari on Wednesday declined to share details of the scam with media but confirmed that inquiry into the embezzlement was being carried out by a team. He said the NBP head office would take further action after the team submitted its findings in the scam. He, however, did not disclose the exact amount of money misappropriated.

Sources in NBP disclosed that initially two employees, both joint custodians, were placed under suspension by regional NBP authorities while one official who was said to be the prime suspect was already absconding. Manager operations at NBP Qasimabad was also relieved of his post and transferred to regional office on Fatima Jinnah Road.

“The prime suspect is said to have approached the bank authorities for returning the money but the management had not yet decided anything. The matter has not yet been handed over to an investigation agency for further probe because authorities are awaiting the outcome of investigation started by regional administration,” said a source.

The source said the scam came to the fore during normal bank inspection last week when the officials failed to tally the quantity of gold with the number of accounts, which were said to be 128.

He said the accounts had been apparently closed in manual registers but they had been kept open in computerised database. The number of such accounts against which loan had been extended was likely to increase in the course of the inquiry, he said.

Under the gold scheme, an official explained, NBP offered loan at 15.5 per cent markup to a client in lieu of gold ornaments for one year. The principal amount of the loan was to be returned along with the markup. If the client failed to pay up then the same account was renewed and markup stood recovered.

But in this case the old accounts had not been closed in the bank’s computerised system and had been shown as renewed.

“The markup has been pocketed by those involved in the scam while the client remained under the impression that his account was renewed after clearing previous markup,” said an official.

A bank inspector noted the anomaly during monthly inspection of the branch and pointed it out to bank manager Shafqat Nizamani.

Later, sources said, two officers from regional management, Liaquat Sheikh and Ahmer Ahmed Khan, checked the record and found irregularities in 128 accounts against which loan had been extended in lieu of gold ornaments.

Besides, when the regional management planned auction of gold ornaments of defaulting accounts they sought details from Qasimabad branch and the details submitted by the bank did not tally with the actual record available with regional offices.

The number of accounts was higher than quantity of gold, said the sources.

A source said that in this embezzlement the clients were not aware of the fact that the accounts against which they had first obtained loan in lieu of gold ornaments and accordingly deposited annual markup had not actually been closed and the principal amount along with interest remained outstanding against them.

Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2017