Former PTCL officials held on corruption charges

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has arrested Nooruddin Baqai, ex-chief engineer (Private Sector Project, PTCL HQs), Rehmat Ali Sajid, ex-divisional accounts officer, BT Project, PTCL, Islamabad, and Asmatullah Khan, ex-divisional engineer, BT Project, PTCL on Friday.
The arrested individuals are part of a group of people working with the Built and Transfer (BT) Project of the Pakistan Telecommunications Company Limited (PTCL), who are accused of massive corruption and embezzlement of government property and funds.
Investigations so far conducted have revealed that the accused have caused a loss of Rs 141 million to the national exchequer.
Investigations have been going on into the affairs of the BT Project for financial mismanagement and irregularities towards violation of rules and procedures.
The case was referred to NAB to investigate large-scale purchases made by the PTCL officials associated with the project by making direct cash purchases without demanding estimates. These purchases were not supported by cost quotations, which are a clear violation of the public procurement rules, mandatory in all government transactions.
The BT Project officials made cheap quality purchases at exorbitant rates from a select group of suppliers.
These suppliers were either their close relatives or were the illegal associates of these officials. At times cheques and cash payments were issued without receiving stores.
Where the items were issued, they were given in short supply and were covered up in over-invoicing.
This practice was not restricted to stores only. The amounts were misappropriated in the purchase of vehicles as well.
False payments were made to contractors from under the head of Road Reinstatement. The contractors in connivance with the officials of the project embezzled the money.
Other financial heads like, Building Modification and Dismantling and Extra Establishment were misused to siphon off government funds.
A deputy chief engineer and the general manager of the BT Project deliberately allocated funds for utilisation under various heads like, purchase of vehicles, local purchases, etc. which provided opportunities to their associates to misappropriate them.
They failed to exercise their authority and control over these funds, and committed supervisory lapses in looking after the State's financial interests. Further investigations are continuing into the matter.