LAHORE: The Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA), Multan, has suspended its three employees, including director marketing, from service over Rs300 million corruption.

PHA Director General Kareem Bakhsh lodged an inquiry against three officials, including director marketing Hafiz Usama, accountant Badar Munir, site inspector Pervaiz Iqbal on allegations of corruption, misconduct, and liabilities of 2022, 23, and 24.

He constituted a five-member committee, led by director admin and finance/director engineering PHA Multan Adnan Ahmad Bhatti. Other members include deputy director finance Hafiz Naeem Abbas Mirza, deputy director admin Ahsan Saleem Baig, resident assistant director Qazi Mudassir Nawaz and assistant director Shehzad Anwar.

The terms of reference of the committee included scrutiny of lease agreements, advertisement and publicity contracts, revenue reconciliation, legal and administrative compliance and suggestions for improvements.

The inquiry revealed systemic failures resulting in a colossal loss of approximately Rs172m over four years, primarily from publicity contracts and other leases.

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The inquiry report available with Dawn uncovered widespread corruption, financial misappropriation, and administrative malpractice in the marketing directorate of PHA Multan, leading to the suspension of three officials.

The investigation found that government funds, including Rs20m from Wasa’s one per cent horticulture allocation, were fraudulently diverted to cover liabilities of private contractors. Additionally, Rs64m in financial instruments received by the marketing directorate vanished without trace, while Rs68m were illegally diverted to unrelated revenue heads or previous fiscal years to conceal deficits.

The report identified forgery of official records, including tampered dates and suspected signatures of a former director general, as well as unauthorised adjustments favouring contractors.

Hafiz Usama was accused of gross negligence, complicity in funds diversion, and failure to prevent the loss of public funds. He allegedly issued fake adjustment letters and ignored recovery shortfalls.

Accountant Badar Munir was directly implicated in misappropriating funds, losing instruments worth millions, and depositing Wasa cheques into private contractor accounts. Inspector Pervaiz Iqbal was found complicit in diverting funds and fabricating challans, including a fraudulent Rs3.5m transaction.

The committee also highlighted non-cooperation from suspended officials, with Usama refusing to submit a written reply and Munir evading scrutiny by submitting a leave application.

The report recommends criminal proceedings under anti-corruption laws, recovery of embezzled funds, and a forensic audit to probe documents forgery.

The committee also proposed reforms that include digitising revenue systems, enforcing strict financial controls, and conducting geo-tagged surveys of leased properties.

The PHA also forwarded the findings of the inquiry to the Anti-Corruption Establishment and higher authorities for urgent action.

The officials were suspended from service on account of inefficiency and poor performance in view of the shortfall in revenue recovery under the Publicity Fee contract and other auctioned revenue heads for financial year 2024-25, as well as accumulated arrears in previous years.

DG Mr Bakhsh told Dawn that no one would be allowed to misuse authority and strict action would be taken against the officials involved in corruption.

ACE Regional Director Basharat Nabi told this reporter that he received the complaint and further investigation is underway.

He said PHA officials were called to record their statements and it would be premature to comment on the issues.

Published in Dawn, August 5th, 2025