LAHORE: An official inquiry has held four officials of the Public Health Engineering (PHE) guilty of misconduct and corruption in development projects during their posting in Muzaffargarh.

The probe led by Multan Development Authority (MDA) Director-General Kaiser Saleem has recommended dismissal from service of two officials and forced retirement of two others.

The PHE (South Punjab) had constituted a three-members inquiry team to look into inefficiency, misconduct and corruption charges against EXEN Amjad Saleem Khan, SDO Talib Hussain, SDO Jatoi Latif Ahmad and sub-engineer Shahid Naeem Akhtar.

The inquiry committee report available with Dawn states that the officials were involved in embezzling millions of rupees in different schemes of laying tuff tiles in streets and sewerage projects in Rangpur and allotted the tender to their favorite contractors.

The committee recommended recovery of losses caused to the national exchequer from guilty officials and contractors after conducting a detailed inquiry and visiting the sites of the projects.

The inquiry committee recommended forced retirement of EXEN Amjad Saleem Khan and Jatoi SDO Lateef Ahmad and dismissal of SDO Talib Hussain and sub-engineer Shahid Naeem Akhtar from service under the PEEDA Act 2006 “due to incompetence, making irregular payments and corruption.” The committee also recommended that pension benefits should not be given to the compulsorily retired officers until they contributed to the government exchequer.

MDA DG Mr Saleem said that the committee had been working for the last four months. It visited project sites where nothing had been done but payments had been released to contractors.

Published in Dawn, January 17th, 2023