Sindh govt begins probing two accounts officers

KARACHI: The Sindh Finance Department has initiated an inquiry and departmental action against two officers of the district accounts offices over the allegations of corruption, misconduct, and inefficiency.

During the preliminary inquiry, both the officers, including Janak Raja, grade 17 officer of District Finance Office Kashmore-Kandhkot and Sub-Accountant Zulqarnain Shah of District Finance Office Jacobabad were found guilty of misappropriation of Rs340 million in the head of pension, making bogus and excessive payments on accounts of refund of security deposits.

The Sindh Finance Department, in order to probe the matter, formed an inquiry committee which comprised Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Treasury Iqbal Ahmed Sheikh and District Finance Officer Sukkur Huzoor Bakhsh Memon.

In addition, the Department has also initiated proceedings against the said officers under the Sindh Civil Servants (Efficiency and Discipline) Rules 1973.

As per the findings of the committee’s preliminary inquiry, Computer Programmer Janak Raja was found guilty of misappropriation of over Rs50 million and Zulqarnain Shah was found involved in causing a loss of Rs290 million to the exchequer.

In the recent past, innumerable cases of corruption in the district finance offices of the province have surfaced as the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), and Sindh Anti-Corruption Establishment are investigating several such cases against the officers involved in the corruption.

On account of departmental proceedings, so far, a dozen officers have been dismissed from their jobs, many have been suspended and several were directed to report to the head office. On the other hand, officers Janak Raja and Zulqarnain Shah, while talking to ‘The News’, denied the allegations, saying they will contest the proceedings and defend themselves against such charges.