Probe ordered into ‘illegal’ appointment to LWMC

LAHORE : Another case of appointment on high salary ignoring rules and regulations has surfaced in Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC) following which a high-level inquiry committee has been constituted to ascertain the facts.

Sources in the company revealed that former managing director of Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC) Bilal Mustafa Syed who some months back had fled to Australia to avoid a NAB investigation had appointed Moinul Arfeen as the company secretary ignoring the fact that he had not applied for the post.

A list of shortlisted candidates for the post of Company Secretary available with The News revealed that 20 candidates were short-listed for the job and the list didn’t contain the name of Moinul Arfeen. Majority of the candidates applied for the job of Company Secretary were either LLB or MBA while a Chartered Accountant and CA Degree holder was also among the shortlisted candidates.

On the other hand, Company’s internal marks sheet of the candidates who applied for the position of Chief Financial Officers (CFO) contained the name of Moinul Arfeen. Interestingly, Moinul Arfeen was given a total of 23 points while two candidates namely Muhammad Khalid Butt and Majid Alvi got a total of 26 numbers each. This means that Moinul Arfeen was at the third position in the shortlisted candidates for the job of CFO.

Sources said the then LWMC MD Bilal Mustafa ignoring the rules that a candidate can only be appointed on a seat for which he has applied, appointed Moinul Arfeen as Company Secretary on Rs350,000 salary with other perks and privileges. Sources claimed that the LWMC HR department also objected to this appointment but then MD bypassed the HR committee and appointed Moinul Arfeen as the Company Secretary.

When contacted, Acting Managing Director LWMC Farrukh Butt stated that some two days back Secretary Local Government pointed out this issue on which he has constituted a three-member fact committee to inquire into the matter.

Secretary Local Government, Punjab while talking to The News said that he was aware of the issue and had already directed Acting MD LWMC to inquire into the facts. He said if the appointment of the Company Secretary was done against the rules, every legal and departmental action would be taken against him.

The scribe also tried to contact Moinul Arfeen on his cell number but he didn’t attend the call. Detailed SMS regarding story were also sent to him but he didn’t reply to any SMS until filing of this report.

It is pertinent to mention that Punjab Local Government Department had conducted a special inquiry against the former MD LWMC Bilal Mustafa in which he was declared guilty of illegal and wrong appointments, granting of consultation agreements to his relatives and friends and many other financial irregularities were also found in the report. The case was sent to NAB but former MD LWMC who was an Australian national managed to flee to Australia on the pretext of health treatment and so far he had not returned to face the NAB inquiry.