Three opt for plea bargain in Rs5.8 bn Sindh ads probe

Imdad Soomro
ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has authorized inquiry into alleged corruption and misuse of public money worth Rs5.875 billion by one of the senior politicians of Sindh, Sharjeel Inam Memon, while the bureau has approved plea bargain/voluntary return of corruption money by three private persons in the same case proving that the case against the PPP provincial minister is on strong footing.
In the NAB executive board meeting, the case of misuse of authority and embezzlement of funds from advertisement budget was presented and Karachi NAB DG on a complaint of a government official of Information Department approved launching of an inquiry.
During the inquiry, Sharjeel Inam Memon, the then Minister for Information, Sindh also surfaced as one of the accused, the NAB inquiry says.Furthermore, one of the accused has opted for voluntary return, hence the NAB (Karachi) has recommended re-authorization of inquiry and approval of voluntary return (VR).
The NAB executive board meeting has been told that the findings of the inquiry conducted so far are: The pre-qualification for selection of advertising agencies was done in violation of Sindh Public Procurement Rules, 2010. According to an inquiry conducted by Director Information, release orders have been/are being issued to these so-called pre-qualified agencies without following rules and regulations. No action was taken on this report by the then Secretary Zulfiqar Shalwani who was also involved in this alleged corruption.
The inquiry further reveals that in violation of Advertisement Policy 2011, the advertisements were being released to newspapers/periodicals without ascertaining the circulation/merit. Display advertisements of millions of rupees have been released to newspapers wherein matter is not of public awareness rather of political/personal projections. Such ads have been released to even 100 newspapers while the Advertisement Policy restricts only to 12 newspapers/periodicals. An amount of Rs5.875 billion was released to so-called pre-qualified advertising agencies from 2013 to 2015 for awareness campaigns in electronic media.
NAB EBM has further said that Sharjeel Inam Memon approved pre-qualification of advertisement agencies in violation of SPPRA and also approved releasing of official advertisement. So far two agencies namely M/s Xnine Communication and M/s Value Added Marketing Services (VAMS) were inquired. Both the companies were issued release orders at exorbitant rates without calling quotations and without confirming market rates. M/s VAMS has opted for VR for an amount of Rs71.292 million (50 percent of the total liability). The remaining amount will be recovered from the accused officials. M/s Xnine has also showed willingness to return the embezzled amount through VR but the settlement is still to be finalized.
Liability against one of the accused persons namely Abdul Qadir Shah is calculated at Rs74.4 million, which he voluntarily came forward and offered to return the amount in three installments. Accordingly his voluntary return request has been recommended for acceptance by Karachi NAB DG, NAB’s inquiry states.
Besides Sindh Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon, the other accused are Zulfiqar Ali Shalwani, ex-secretary Information and Archives Department; Mansoor Ahmed Rajput, Dy Director, Ms Anita, Dy Director; Makhdoom Amir Hashmi, Director/Chief Executive Officer, M/s Xnine Communication (Pvt) Ltd; Fawad Alam, Director M/s Value Added Marketing Services (Pvt) Ltd and Abdul Qadir Shah.
Well-placed sources disclosed to ‘The News’ that Shalwani was removed after reports of misuse of advertising budget and Nazir Jamali was posted as Secretary Information Sindh. Sources said that Nazir Jamali started cooperating with NAB by providing the official documents to the bureau. A few days back, Jamali too has been removed and now Zahid Memon has been posted as new Secretary Information.