SAHIWAL: The regional directorate of the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) unearthed a racket that encashed through fake accounts advertisement cheques worth Rs13 million that were issued for the Directorate General Public Relations (DGPR) Lahore office by the Punjab highways department Sahiwal office.

ACE Sahiwal region Director Shafqatullah Mushtaq told Dawn that 84 fraudulent and suspected transactions had been identified from two fake accounts opened under the name of “DGP (daily Sadai Dastoor)” in 2012 and 2017 in Habib Bank Limited’s High Street Branch, Sahiwal and the bank’s Harappa city branch, respectively. As per the documents available with Dawn, around 54 illegal transactions out of the total 84 identified had been verified through which Rs13 million were embezzlement.

The alleged ringleader, Mehmood Khalid Chaudhry, a resident of Jahaz Ground, Sahiwal, is not only a registered contractor with the highways department, but also publisher of a local daily, Sadai Dastoor.

Sources said the corruption racket operated with the connivance of a number of personnel at DGPR Lahore, Sahiwal highways department, district accounts offices of Okara, Sahiwal and Pakpattan and a number of employees of private banks.

Chaudhry used the two fake accounts under the name of “DGP (daily Sadai Dastoor)” for encashing cheques of the highways department issued for DGPR Lahore office.

Recently, five members of the racket were booked by local ACE police station after completion of a seven-month inquiry conducted by ACE Okara Deputy Director (Investigation) Ashfaqur Rehman, and ACE regional office Assistant Director (Investigation) Khizer Tufail. Those booked included DGPR Lahore accounts officer Muhammad Javed; highways department Head Clerk Muhammad Saleem, Clerk Abid Hussain, Junior Clerk Mahfooz Ali and Chaudhry.

Inquiry officer Rehman told Dawn that notices had been issued to the five suspects and they would be arrested soon. The ACE investigators hoped further investigation will reveal more fake accounts where advertisement cheques of millions of rupees issued for the DGPR were encashed from highways department’s account.

The racket came to light last year when Muhammad Ali Bokhari, a resident of Sahiwal and registered contractor with the highways department, demanded an inquiry into a cheque worth Rs342,043 dated September 2018 issued by the department’s executive engineer in Sahiwal. It was issued as payment to the DGPR for an advertisement placed in a national daily. The complainant argued that the cheque had not been deposited with the DGPR account but with a fake account of a private bank branch in Harappa city. The account was maintained under an improvised name of DGPR, but run by Chaudhry.

An inquiry was launched and the highways department superintendent engineer wrote to the Punjab Account Works accountant general as well as DGPR to find out if the cheque had been deposited and the money withdrawn through a fake account. The inquiry was conducted by Chichawatni Highway Sub-Divisional Officer Muhammad Saeed Siyal.

The inquiry proved the cheque had been issued by the highways department to the DGPR, but fraudulently deposited with the fake account run by Chaudhry in the Harappa branch of a bank with the connivance of a highways employee. The investigation further revealed that several other cheques in the name of DGPR Lahore had been encashed through fake accounts run by the main suspect.

It is in this background that Sahiwal Deputy Commissioner Muhammad Zaman Wattoo had written a letter to the ACE Lahore director general on July 13 this year and demanded a full inquiry into the corruption racket run by Chaudhry with the assistance of other public department officials. The regional ACE office had appointed two officials to investigate the technical record.

Inquiry officer Rehman told Dawn that after seven months of meetings with public and bank officials, they identified 84 illegal transactions by Chaudhry and others. The investigation established that Rs13,011,205 of advertisement money of DGPR Lahore had been embezzled through 54 transactions. Dawn has copies of the cheques and transaction details.

ACE officials are further investigating the role of public sector officials from various departments, including highways department, DGPR Lahore, district accounts offices of Sahiwal, Okara and Pakpattan and also bank officials in maintaining 84 “suspect transactions”. The investigators suspect embezzlement of Rs20 million through illegal transactions and expect disclosure of more fake accounts.

Published in Dawn, November 26th, 2019