KARACHI: Two Sindh ministers revealed on Monday that the government’s anti-corruption body had detected Rs1.45 billion corruption in the tractor subsidy scheme and the names of all those involved in it would soon be made public.

“The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had given a clean chit to a firm, but the same company is found involved in the scandal of subsidy on 5,780 tractors,” Information Minister Nasir Hussain Shah and Agriculture Minister Sohail Anwer Siyal said at a press conference at the Sindh Assembly building’s committee room.

They said the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) had on March 7 received a complaint alleging commission of massive corruption in the tractor subsidy scheme run by the agriculture ministry and private persons. Subsequently, the record was seized during raids at the agriculture ministry’s offices and houses of the suspects.

“The record showed that accused Shehzad Riaz, CEO of M/s Shehzad Trade Link, agent of Belarus Tractors, worked as a dealer to deliver tractors to the growers [who] emerged successful in the ballot under the subsidised tractor scheme from 2009 to 2012. The dealer was supposed to deliver tractors to the growers and claim subsidy of Rs300,000 per tractor from the Sindh government. As many as 5,780 tractors were purportedly delivered by him to the growers. But actually on ground, he did not do so. Rather, by issuing fake invoices as well as sale certificates, he received subsidy of Rs1.45bn, fraudulently,” said Mr Siyal, who also holds the portfolio of the home ministry.

He said the accused had sold the tractors to other purchasers on the price of his choosing. “He engaged many dealers across Sindh through two dummy companies — M/s AR Enterprises and M/s MI Enterprises — which he had actually registered in the names of his employees Amir Rafiq and Mohammad Imran, respectively. He got the tokens from growers and used them coupled with fake invoices to claim subsidy fraudulently.”

The ministers said the dealer was supposed to collect pay orders from the growers and deliver tractors to the same persons and collect subsidy from the government. However, the record revealed that Shehzad Riaz “deceitfully claimed to have received cash payments and generated invoices in the names of growers and claimed subsidy from the government”.

“He had purchased tokens from the growers without delivering tractors. Upon verification during investigation hundreds of growers have admitted that they had never received tractors,” the ministers said.

Besides, they added, out of 45 dealers, 29 had deposed under Section 161 and some under Section 164 of CrPC to have purchased tokens at the behest of Shehzad Riaz, without delivering tractors to the growers.

“The accused got subsidy by issuing invoices showing delivery of tractors to the growers in each case. He also issued parallel invoices bearing same engine and chassis numbers of tractors to routine customers, which he had indicated earlier while claiming subsidy.

“He got double profit of subsidy and sale of tractors at the price of his choosing, instead of the fixed rate of Rs1,035,000 per tractor, which he had agreed to charge in the scheme. A sizeable number of fake invoices have been seized, which were doubly used for feigning delivery of tractors to the growers on the one hand in Sindh, and the same invoices bearing the same chassis and engine numbers were sold to dealers in Punjab,” said the information minister.

The ministers said the same invoices and sale certificates had been used by the accused to receive subsidy amounting to Rs.1.4bn.

“Evidence is on record showing as many as 1,200 fake pay orders purportedly issued from a single bank branch, from the account of the accused for receiving subsidy, illegally. Besides double invoicing fraud, he managed registration of the subsidy scheme tractors in the name of market purchasers in the excise ministry by issuing sale certificates bearing the same engine and chassis numbers, which he had given in the agriculture ministry in the form of invoice issued by him for claim of subsidy.”

They said the excise ministry had, after verification, generated a report for the ACE. “So many witnesses have denied receiving tractors as shown in fake record furnished by the accused. His bank accounts show transactions from Punjab dealers confirming sale of the same tractors to Punjab, which were shown in subsidy claim,” they added.

The ministers claimed that the links of the accused were strong, as the same case was closed by NAB for the reasons “best known to them”.

“Surprisingly, the accused has been praying in a court to refer the case again to NAB. However, it’s not possible under the ACE rules now,” Mr Shah said.

Published in Dawn, June 13th, 2017