LAHORE:A new scandal of misuse of funds was reported in Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC).
The complaint of misuse of petty cash funds was initiated by the newly-transferred manager of MBS project (Metro Bus Services) in which he claimed that receipts of payments of petty cash submitted by former manager were fake and unverified. LWMC is providing janitorial services to Metro Bus Service and for this a huge staff was deputed on the track. To run day to day affairs, petty cash was issued to Manager MBS who was responsible for maintenance and cleanliness while Senior Manager is supposed to monitor and run the daily operations.
Following the complaint, LWMC’s HR department issued an explanation letter to Senior Manager Operations (Officiating), MBS project Amina Khan dated November 01, 2019, stating that irregularities were found during random scrutiny of reimbursement of petty cash bills pertains to Metro Bus Service, Lahore, which showed negligence in performance of official duty on her part.
The letter said that during random checking and verification, both the receipts were found fake. It added that since the above mentioned acts amounting to inefficiency, negligence and embezzlement of public money. “You are therefore called upon to explain in writing within three days of the receipt of this notice, as to why disciplinary proceedings should not be initiated against you by the competent authority,” the explanation concluded. Sources in LWMC claimed that MBS Manager had also written some detailed emails about ongoing corruption and presence of ghost employees in MBS project but those emails were dumped by previous MD LWMC Ajmal Bhatti.
Sources said that following the recent explanation letter, Sohail Malik (GM Operations) went to the office of GM HR and pressurised him to withdraw the explanation letter issued to Amina Khan. However, Sohail Malik said that he didn’t pressurise anyone but instead he asked GM HR to resolve the issue amicably.
Manager MBS Anees Janjua said that he pointed out the wrongdoings as his duty. He said it was up to the company to initiate a detailed investigation into the issue and verify all the previous receipts to ascertain the level of corruption and loss to the national exchequer.
Talking about his previous complaints, he said he reported all his reservations and findings to the higher management and it was up to the higher management to probe those allegations and take action against corrupt mafia operating in MBS project.
On the other hand, Amina Khan in her written reply to the explanation accused the HR department of prejudice and gender biased as a female being on a senior position that clearly shows a non-professional approach and the faulty system in which you don’t even bother to look into the documents/reality. She claimed that she took the charge of MBS as Senior Manager on August 26, 2019. She replied that the highlighted issue was related to dates, which didn’t fall in her tenure. She also said that intentionally the date of receipt was wrongly mentioned in the explanation issued to her.
General Manager HR, LWMC said that the issue was in the notice of LWMC Managing Director Rao Imtiaz and explanation was issued to Amina Khan on MD’s orders. He said if she was not involved in any wrongdoing, she could simply reply instead of turning the issue to gender discrimination or sexual harassment.
