Five Iesco officials sent to Adiala Jail in billing scandal

Islamabad : Five officials of Islamabad Electric Supply Company (Iesco) have been arrested and sent to Adiala Jail by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for their alleged role in corruption scandal worth Rs240 million. Iesco has also suspended seven other officials for their alleged role in the scandal.

FIA after completing the investigation sent, Iesco Customer Services Officer (CSO) Islamabad-I, Muhammad Naeem, Commercial Assistant Khalid Mehmood, Account Assistant Muhammad Rafiq, Muhammad Waqas and Gull Khatab to Adiala Jail for forgery in payments of bills through easy paisa franchise system. According to investigation these officials did not deposit the paid amount in national exchequer. It revealed that the corrupt officials also took huge amount of bills directly and posted bogus scrolls related to Iesco consumers’ bills using fake bank statements along with fake bank stamps. The corrupt officials also entered all record in computer but the amount did not reach the national exchequer.

The investigation pointed out that the corrupt officials secured clearance and verification of all bogus scrolls as well as bogus monthly bank statements through Commercial Assistant Khalid Mehmood. These cleared and reconciled bogus scrolls as well as fake bank statements were then forwarded for further posting in the Iesco online system, the FIA investigation revealed.

Iesco chief executive officer also suspended Divisional Account Officer (DAO) Muhammad Sarfaraz, Commercial Assistant Rashid Ali, Account Assistant Saeed Abbasi, Assistant Manager Anwar Saeed, Ayaz Baig, Yasir Pervez and Asif Rehman.

Iesco spokesman Raja Asim Nazir told ‘The News’ that the department was trying to purge the black sheep from the department.” All corrupt officials have been immediately suspended and some of them have even been sent to Adiala Jail. We will pay back the embezzled amount to the affected consumers,” he claimed. He said that consumers should bring paid bills with them for compensation.

He appealed to the consumers to pay bills through banks. “Crackdown against corrupt officials will continue and we will send other corrupt officers of Iesco to Adiala Jail soon,” he warned.