ISLAMABAD, March 23: A committee constituted by the Planning Commission has, after initial investigation, recommended strict action against officials of the National Education Foundation (NEF) for illegally transferring Rs794.127 million to a private bank account and then withdrawing over Rs4 million from it, Dawn has learnt.

According to documents available with this reporter, the basic education community school project (BECSP) was running under the auspices of NEF before the devolution under the 18th amendment. Its project director Brig (retired) Sirajuddin and assistant director (finance) Abdul Hanan allegedly manipulated the transfer of Rs794.127 million by opening a private account in National Bank of Pakistan's Aabpara branch on June 30, 2011. The amount granted by the government of Pakistan was only to be deposited at the NBP's Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) branch, where the project already had an account.

However, despite the clear direction issued by the joint secretary Cabinet Division giving transaction authority only to the managing director of NEF Kamran Zafar, the money was transferred to the private account.

According to the documents, BECSP ceased to exist on June, 30, 2011; therefore, the hasty transfer of the amount by the two officials showed that everything was not transparent.

Further evidence of embezzlement of the fund was corroborated by the fact that Rs4 million were withdrawn by the two officials for their personal use as they had the cheque book of the account in their names without any authority.

In November 2011, the managing director of NEF, Kamran Zafar, filed an application with the Federal Investigation Agency seeking registration of criminal cases against the accused. He also requested the management of NBP to freeze the account.

After initial investigation into the matter, FIA's deputy director Syed Junaid Arshad wrote to the chairman of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in December 2011, stating that since the community schools project had been transferred to provinces the case should be dealt with by NAB. However, the authority did not move ahead with the case.

Later, in January 2012, the Planning Commission formed a three-member committee headed by its member infrastructure Ghulam Mohiuddin Marri which after investigation recommended that such elements should be taken to task so that in future public money is not misused by anyone.

An official of NEF requesting not to be named said: “NEF was previously under the control of the ministry of education but after devolution it came under the ministry of professional and technical training, and the projects running all over the country were closed. The decision may be in the interest of provinces but it has created a mess in the federal capital and even an inquiry of such an issue has become difficult.”

Despite repeated attempts, Mr Sirajuddin did not receive the call nor called back till filing of this report.

Federal Secretary Ministry of Professional and Technical Training Qamar Zaman Chaudhry told Dawn that he did not have accurate information about the issue but said he would look into the matter.

Member National Assembly Standing Committee on Professional and Technical Training Sardar Mohammad Mushtaq Khan said: “That kind of issues should be taken in standing committees but unfortunately so far the chairperson of the committee has not been nominated due to which we cannot call a meeting.”