LAHORE, Jan 7: The National Accountability Bureau on Monday arrested a contractor and three former officials of the Pakistan Railways for devouring millions of rupees in supply of uniforms.

According to a NAB press release, those arrested were Contractor Shahrukh Mahmood, former Traffic Store head clerk Riaz Ahmad, former accounts officer Muhammad Ameer and the divisional accounts officer.

An advertisement by the Pakistan Railways was published in December, 1996, inviting applications for pre-qualification, registration of firms/contractors for supply of uniform items.

Eleven firms applied while six of them were declared pre-qualified. Five of them belonged to Shahrukh Mahmood and Brothers having different names and styles including M/s S.A. International. The contract for the supply of uniforms was awarded to M/s S.A. International. Against this running supply contract, the Pakistan Railways paid a total sum of Rs203 million till June, 1999. However, the accused contractors actually supplied uniforms worth Rs97 million only.

The Pakistan Railways staff released Rs105 million to the accused firm without receiving uniforms. On June 22 last year, the contractors put the uniform store on fire at Platform No.4 of the Lahore railway station to destroy evidence of embezzlement of funds.

The Pakistan Railways constituted an inquiry committee to fix the responsibility and assess the loss caused by fire. The inquiry revealed a huge loss caused to the national exchequer. On the basis of sufficient evidence found by the committee, the case was referred to the Punjab NAB for further investigation.

The contractor used to prepare and submit fake supply challans and bills for payment. The railway staff, in connivance with the contractor, prepared fake material receipt notes on the basis of which the payments were released.