FIA probing 17 senior officials of PSO for corruption
November 08, 2013
ISLAMABAD: Despite tall claims of appointing professional and honest people to head public sector enterprises, the PML-N government has appointed half a dozen top officials in Pakistan State Oil (PSO) who are facing at least 17 corruption cases.
The top managers of the PSO involved in the alleged corruption of billions of rupees are now running from pillar to post to get a clean chit from the two elite investigation agencies, National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).
Documents available with The News reveal that the FIA has dispatched the questionnaires as part of investigation to Sohail Wajahat Siddiqui former Chairman PSO Board of Management, former MD PSO Naeem Yahya Mir, Jahangir Ali Shah the present Deputy Managing Director (DMD), Zulfiqar Jafri present SGM Retail Business, Lubricants & Agency Trade and Chemicals, Lt Col (Retd) Fazl-e-Abbas and Dr Nazir Zaidi present SGM International Marketing.
The FIA has registered 17 different cases against these personnel. When contacted the top management of PSO admitted that FIA had sent them the questionnaires, which they have reverted to the concerned agency.
However, the PSO management in a written reply told the News that they could not comment further on the matter until the investigation was completed. Not only this but the present top management has also been facing various cases in NAB and other court of laws in various alleged charges of corruption, mismanagement and embezzlement.
But instead of taking any action they have been rewardedwith top posts in the organization. Deputy Managing Director (DMD) of PSO Jahangir Shah who is close relative of a key political leader of PPP has been facing many serious charges of corruption in his tenure.
The document further revealed that Shah’s performance as an employee was below par due to which he was warned to improve his performance. Not only this, but he was given undue promotion on the directives of former PPP prime minister he was alleviated from group four to group two. Due to his poor performance the annual incentives and increment were stopped, reveal the documents.
Contrary to this recently he was charged for violating the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules in the procurement of base oil’s huge quantity on exorbitant prices. Shah was alleged for manipulation and taking advantage of his post he gave the contract to a company whose rates were much higher than the other companies.
Later the complaint committee and Board of Management’s (BoM) inquiry committee also held him responsible and asked him to give his response. The BoM inquiry committee found that the company H&H who was given contract was not the lowest bidder for the required Group II Base Oil.
When asked about the latest update of the Base Oil case, the PSO management replied that the company had cancelled the contract at the time when they received complaint and currently both the parties have gone to the court and matter is subjudice.
Not only this, but the said company also changed the manufacturing company which it quoted during the time of bidding. The inquiry committee in its finding said that it seems that in the tender under review the requirement of quality overshadowed the requirement of economical purchase. The committee identified certain errors and omission in the procurement and it needed corrective measures in order to avoid such thing in future. After that the PSO management cancelled the contract.However instead of responding to these allegations leveled upon him, he replied to the managing director at that time that he was being victimized.
A well-placed source privy to the matter informed that besides the other members of top management, the present MD Amjad Pervez Janjua has no experience of working in any key department of PSO. All of his experience was with Corporate Planning Department of PSO but even then he has been alleviated as MD PSO. This is the reason that during the first economic quarter of fiscal year 2013-14 the operating cost of PSO has increased by 123 per cent to Rs7.2 billion from Rs3.2 billion.
The source further informed that the present DMD Finance and IT Sohail Ahmed Butt’s appointment was made in violation of the Supreme Court’s directives. The source said that at the time of his appointment he was allegedly above 62 years which violates the Supreme Court’s direction on upper age limit.
The top managers of the PSO involved in the alleged corruption of billions of rupees are now running from pillar to post to get a clean chit from the two elite investigation agencies, National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).
Documents available with The News reveal that the FIA has dispatched the questionnaires as part of investigation to Sohail Wajahat Siddiqui former Chairman PSO Board of Management, former MD PSO Naeem Yahya Mir, Jahangir Ali Shah the present Deputy Managing Director (DMD), Zulfiqar Jafri present SGM Retail Business, Lubricants & Agency Trade and Chemicals, Lt Col (Retd) Fazl-e-Abbas and Dr Nazir Zaidi present SGM International Marketing.
The FIA has registered 17 different cases against these personnel. When contacted the top management of PSO admitted that FIA had sent them the questionnaires, which they have reverted to the concerned agency.
However, the PSO management in a written reply told the News that they could not comment further on the matter until the investigation was completed. Not only this but the present top management has also been facing various cases in NAB and other court of laws in various alleged charges of corruption, mismanagement and embezzlement.
But instead of taking any action they have been rewardedwith top posts in the organization. Deputy Managing Director (DMD) of PSO Jahangir Shah who is close relative of a key political leader of PPP has been facing many serious charges of corruption in his tenure.
The document further revealed that Shah’s performance as an employee was below par due to which he was warned to improve his performance. Not only this, but he was given undue promotion on the directives of former PPP prime minister he was alleviated from group four to group two. Due to his poor performance the annual incentives and increment were stopped, reveal the documents.
Contrary to this recently he was charged for violating the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules in the procurement of base oil’s huge quantity on exorbitant prices. Shah was alleged for manipulation and taking advantage of his post he gave the contract to a company whose rates were much higher than the other companies.
Later the complaint committee and Board of Management’s (BoM) inquiry committee also held him responsible and asked him to give his response. The BoM inquiry committee found that the company H&H who was given contract was not the lowest bidder for the required Group II Base Oil.
When asked about the latest update of the Base Oil case, the PSO management replied that the company had cancelled the contract at the time when they received complaint and currently both the parties have gone to the court and matter is subjudice.
Not only this, but the said company also changed the manufacturing company which it quoted during the time of bidding. The inquiry committee in its finding said that it seems that in the tender under review the requirement of quality overshadowed the requirement of economical purchase. The committee identified certain errors and omission in the procurement and it needed corrective measures in order to avoid such thing in future. After that the PSO management cancelled the contract.However instead of responding to these allegations leveled upon him, he replied to the managing director at that time that he was being victimized.
A well-placed source privy to the matter informed that besides the other members of top management, the present MD Amjad Pervez Janjua has no experience of working in any key department of PSO. All of his experience was with Corporate Planning Department of PSO but even then he has been alleviated as MD PSO. This is the reason that during the first economic quarter of fiscal year 2013-14 the operating cost of PSO has increased by 123 per cent to Rs7.2 billion from Rs3.2 billion.
The source further informed that the present DMD Finance and IT Sohail Ahmed Butt’s appointment was made in violation of the Supreme Court’s directives. The source said that at the time of his appointment he was allegedly above 62 years which violates the Supreme Court’s direction on upper age limit.
