SAHIWAL: The Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) booked three employees of the Punjab Employees Social Security Institution (PESSI), Sahiwal, in a Rs7.5 million corruption case.

Those grilled in the case are Ali Ahmed, regional director; Saeed Ahmed, deputy director; Zulfikar Ali, accountant; Shamaila Anjum, assistant director; Tufail Baloch and Basit Naseem, clerk; Abu Bakar, and Zafar Iqbal, watchman.

The ACE registered a case against Saeed, Zulfikar and Basit while the role of the remaining five is being investigated further.

The 10-bed social security hospital provides health facilities to 9,741 industrial workers and their 57,397 dependents. The PESSI monthly collects Rs1,050 per labourer as contributions from the owners of registered industrial units. Approximately, Rs10.93 million annually is contributed by employers from the regional office. Under standard procedures, employers’ contributions were collected through forms F-4, F-8, and F-5, and its record was put in C-5 Ledgers. After completion of all procedures labourers/workers were issued cards upon which they received free medical assistance from hospitals.

The contribution amount from employers’ organisation was deposited in PEESI officials account in authorised banks and the financial audit of all records and transactions were annually done by the provincial government.

A racket of officers and employees started collecting contributions through fake receipts and deposited it in fake bank account opened with the unauthorised account. The fraud was done from 2016 to 2020.

The contribution amount of labourers of a local multinational food company for June 2020 and September 2020 was not shown in C-5 ledger.

The PESSI commissioner formed a fact-finding committee that observed embezzlement included theft of F-4 and F-5 forms from a central store, generating fake receipts of employers collection and not depositing the amount in a government account, giving a junior clerk additional charge of the post of a cashier, storekeeper and contribution collection clerk and fake and bogus entries on forms not recommended by audit teams.

The probe team also unearthed a bank account, maintained by Basit Naseem, in the NRSP, Sahiwal, under the name of the PESSI.

A source told Dawn that gross violation of rules and regulations was done not by a single officer but a group of officers and clerks.

On March 22, Ali Ahmed, Muhammad Tufail, Basit Naseem, and Abu Bakar were suspended from service over criminal breach of trust and committing fraud with a government organization.

Published in Dawn, May 29th, 2021