KP NAB arrests ex-chairman WWB, others on graft charges

PESHAWAR: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, on Wednesday arrested a former chairman of the Workers Welfare Board (WWB) and other serving and retired officials after accusing them of involvement in illegal award of contracts for procurement of equipment to non-registered firms at exorbitant rates of over Rs3.5 billion.
An official communiqué said the NAB arrested Aizaz-ur-Rehman, a former chairman of WWB KP, Muhammad Ibrar Hussain, director finance (BPS-19), Muhammad Imran Wazir, a former director finance (BPS-19), presently working as director finance of the Provincial Housing Authority (PHA) KP, Muhammad Akbar Awan, owner of M/S Ashraf Enterprises, and Irfan Qureshi.
The NAB claimed that all the suspects were allegedly involved in illegal award of contracts for the procurement of equipment including generators, vacuum cleaners, first aid box, fans, fiberglass rooms, etc, through fake and non-registered firms at highly exorbitant rates of worth more than Rs3.5 billion.
The NAB said the practice caused a huge loss to the exchequer on account of short and substandard supply.
During the course of investigation, it was revealed that the accused Aizaz-ur-Rehman, former chairman WWB KP and secretary Labour Department, with malafide intention delegated all administrative and financial powers to the prime accused Tariq Awan, the then secretary WWB.
It said the accused in connivance with other accused persons opened a secret bank account and used it for illegal activities. The bureau stated that all the illegal payments to the un-registered and fake supply firms were made through this account.
Similarly, it said Imran Khan and Muhammad Abrar worked in connivance with other accused persons. They issued cheques for payments to the fraudulent contractors without any due diligence thus willfully failed to exercise their authority in order to prevent loss to the national exchequer.
Furthermore, the NAB claimed that Arsalan Qureshi and Muhammad Akbar Awan, illegally secured contracts of equipment against highly exorbitant rates, through active connivance of the WWB officials.
It said some of the firms were unregistered and did not have any prior experience of supply to any government department. While most of the firms, it said, were fake and did not have any physical existence. It said that these contractors were hand in glove with crony of accused officials of WWB in causing a huge loss to the exchequer.
The NAB KP has already apprehended several accused persons including Tariq Awan, secretary WWB.
The NAB produced all the accused persons before the accountability court and obtained their 12 days physical remand from the court.