PESHAWAR, Dec 29: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has asked the National Accountability Bureau to investigate alleged illegalities committed by the local staff of a German firm in registering thousands of vehicles. A recently conducted probe identified over 2,000 registered vehicles with fake documents, Excise and Taxation Minister Liaqat Shabab told a press conference here on Thursday.

He said that in some cases stolen and non-customs duty paid vehicles had been issued registration documents and computerised number plates.

“The registration of new vehicles is in the control of EHA Hoffmann GMBH, a German company. The staff of excise and taxation department has no role in the process,” the minister said, adding they had sent the case to NAB in line with legal advice of law department.

The foreign firm, he said, had been contracted in 2005 for a period of five years to develop a computerised vehicle registration system in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The German company was assigned the job of issuing computerised vehicle registration number plates and developing computerised database of all the vehicles registered in the province, he added.

In April 2010, its contract was extended as the task assigned to the firm could not be completed within the stipulated period owing to technical reasons.

To a question about the termination of the foreign firm’s contract after its local staff was found involved in the illegality, the minister said that it was not a simple matter rather much more complicated than it appeared to be.

The foreign firm’s contract, he added, had not been cancelled. “We will wait till the outcome of the NAB’s inquiry,” Mr Shabab said.

He said the case had been referred to NAB after two departmental inquiries conducted by the excise and taxation department, and another conducted by an inquiry committee led by a senior finance department officer, Saifur Rehman Usmani, director FMIU, pointed out illegalities on the part of the firm.

He said the first inquiry committee, constituted on April 12, 2011, submitted its report on May 31, 2011 after a vehicle was impounded with fake registration documents by the excise department. The committee, he added, held the firm responsible for the illegality.

The second inquiry, according to the minister, started on June 2, 2011, was necessitated after another vehicle with forged documents was impounded. The inquiry committee, in its report submitted on August 10, 2011, held the local staff of the foreign contractor of its involvement in illegally registering the vehicle, added the minister.

“In view of the findings of the first probe we constituted another inquiry committee led by a computer expert of the finance department that submitted its 350 paged report in which some 2,000 vehicles have been identified with suspected/fake documents,” Mr Shabab said.

The NAB, he added, had been referred the case because it had technical expertise required to investigate cyber crimes.

“NAB was already investigating the case on its own, now we are also referring the matter to it for holding thorough investigations into it,” said the minister, adding that people found involved in corrupt practices would be taken to task whether they happened to be employees of the private firm or any member of the excise department.

He said the private company had stopped issuing new computerised number plates since September 2010, resulting in problems to people. The government, he added, also suffered substantial financial losses after a large number of people got their new vehicles registered in other provinces.

The provincial government, he said, had also decided to introduce a contingency plan to help resolve people’s problem and start issuing new number plates. In this respect, he added, the motor-vehicle system being pursued by the government of Punjab would be introduced in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to resolve the issue.