Power abuse, corruption: LWMC looking into anonymous complaint

LAHORE: The Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC) has launched an inquiry into a complaint of corruption and misuse of authority as asked by Punjab Local Government and Community Development (LG&CD) Department.

The covering letter of LG&CD(No.SO.Companies(LG)18-24/2017) dated November 8, 2018, enclosed the copy of a complaint to the LWMC managing director.

It said the department received the complaint which contained “allegation of serious nature of corruption maladministration, illegal recruitment and gratification.” It directed “the LWMC MD to furnish a comprehensive report for perusal of the competent authority covering all issues highlighted in the application.”

The copy of the letter was also sent to the LWMC chairman (deputy commissioner) and PA to special secretary, LG&CD department. It is pertinent to mention here that LG&CD had also initiated an inquiry into the alleged illegalities in the appointment of LWMC company secretary but that inquiry is still pending.

According to the new complaint, of which a copy is available with The News, the MBA degree of a senior official of LWMC was illegal as the particular campus of the university was not recognised by the HEC.

It alleged that the official was the only employee of LWMC who was appointed to operations slot and had also worked in the mechanical washing, landfill and HR sections.

According to the complainant, the official had ties with private dumper owners as well as international contractors, and had given them undue favours involving millions of rupees through various jobs especially payment of team days and management cost for the employees who were not eligible for that.

The complaint alleged the official was involved in ghost employee scandal but no action was taken against him. When contacted, the official said the department had initiated inquiry into the complaint and he would submit his reply to the committee. He rejected all allegations against him as baseless.

LWMC MD Farrukh Butt while talking with The News said that the company had sought legal opinion from its legal wing to deal with anonymous complaints. When asked he had already initiated various inquiries on anonymous complaints against different company officers in the past and now he had asked for legal opinion, the LWMC MD said those applications were endorsed by the board of the company or by the LWMC chairman.

He, however, said that internal rivalry of the company employees was resulting in such applications and individuals and groups were submitting anonymous applications against each other at different forums. He said a committee had been constituted to examine the allegations levelled in the application and appropriate action would be taken in case any allegation proved true.