TEVTA vehicles misused in KP with impunity

PESHAWAR: Official vehicles were misused in the Technical Education & Vocational Training Authority (TEVTA) of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province with impunity during the incumbent Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government, according to official documents.

Various officials and politicians including former special assistant to the chief minister misused the TEVTA vehicles. Also, no external audit of the authority was conducted during the past four years despite spending of huge funds worth over eight billion rupees. However, TEVTA has called back five out of its seven vehicles from the officers.

According to the documents [Ref. KP-TEVTA/HR-1/RTI/5158(1,2)] provided by the KP government to the correspondent under the Right to Information Act, 2013, former chairman of TEVTA and Qaumi Watan Party’s MPA Arshad Umarzai kept in his use four vehicles of the authority illegally. He got Vigo vehicle model 2015, registration number AA-4693, on January 10, 2016. He also got control of two other vehicles – Jimny Jeep, MG-832 and Jimny Jeep MG-831 – from the authority on January 25, 2016. After three months, he got the fourth vehicle from the authority, Vigo model 2007, registration number A-8763, on April 5, 2016. Also, one of the vehicles, a Vigo, was maintained and provided fuel by the authority. However, TEVTA called back all four vehicles from Arshad Umarzai on Aug 18, 2017.

When the Qaumi Watan Party MPA was contacted to get his version, he said he used only one vehicle of the authority, a Vigo, and had no knowledge of the other three vehicles as he never used them.

Another ex-chairman of the authority, Malik Shah Muhammad, also got a Vigo vehicle, MA-749, from TEVTA on Oct 27, 2015 illegally and returned it on Sept 12, 2017. According to the official documents, Industries & Commerce Department has also taken two vehicles from TEVTA, though no details have been provided about their use or return to the authority.

Also, the department called a vehicle GLI AA-4694 from TEVTA on Nov 27, 2015, and yet another (GLI model 2015 No 4886) on Aug 3, 2017. The documents show that five out of seven vehicles have been called back and two are still in the use of Commerce and Industries Department.

Interestingly, Trade and Industries Secretary Faheem Wazir showed complete ignorance about getting any vehicles from TEVTA, when he was contacted in this regard. He said he could provide information in this regard and checking the office record that who was using those vehicles.

From 2013 to 2017, the authority received Rs8.31 billion in total, but no external audit was conducted during this period.

TEVTA Managing Director Muhammad Ameen Khan, when contacted admitted that audit of the accounts of the authority as well as the institute was a legal requirement, which has not been fulfilled during the past four years. He said he had written a letter to the Audit Department for an immediate audit of the authority.