Minister for NAB probe into LWMC affairs

LAHORE:Minister for Industries and Commerce Mian Aslam Iqbal has demanded an inquiry by the NAB into the affairs of Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC).

He demanded this in a letter to Chief Minister Usman Buzdar here on Wednesday. In the letter, he demanded the chief minister to lodge an inquiry by the NAB into the affairs of LWMC.“With profound regard to your direction conveyed vide letter dated 11.01.2021, I assumed the responsibility of assisting Lahore Waste Management Company to make Lahore garbage free through effective and self sustaining measures. As a matter of fact, on 15.01.2021, around thirty thousand tons of municipal waste was collected and disposed off in an environment friendly way and city of Lahore was almost municipal waste free. One must appreciate the tireless efforts of officers and staff of LWMC who assisted me in achieving this target in such a short span of time,” he said in the letter.

He said that particularly the services of Asif Naseer, General Manager (Operations), LWMC and Arif Khalil Malik, Manager Workshop were noteworthy. They were career officers of Metropolitan Corporation who were recommended by undersigned for posting in LWMC on deputation basis. Contrary to what was alleged by Chairman LWMC, Asif Naseer was a graduate whereas Arif Khalil was foreign graduate in mechanical engineering whose added hands operationalised around 25 mechanical sweepers lying redundant, the minister said. He said he acted in larger public welfare without any vested interest in any matter of LWMC to ensure compliance of directions.

“What started as an attempt to improve service delivery and to reduce operational cost of the company I ended up being ridiculed and maligned by LWMC Chairman. One finds these allegations very disturbing given my unblemished public service career spanning over two decades, I feel compelled to bring to light the reasons behind these outburst by Chairman LWMC,” he maintained in the letter.

“While overseeing the procedures within the company, I have detected more than 5,000 ghost employees who are draining company’s fund besides POL misappropriation. The commission mafia of these ghost sanitary workers siphon off millions of rupees. I am utterly surprised as to why the incumbent Chairman didn’t take a single step against these mafia’s during his tenure. Is it because of his incompetency or is he hand in glove with this cartel? The question needs to be answered,” he alleged, adding another glaring example of his ineptness was his failure to act upon the recommendation of HR audit. He alleged that there was a long list of employees recruited by previous government on bogus credential. An audit has recommended to terminate their services and recover the cost, the minister said.

In the letter, Aslam Iqbal said that Chairman of BoD of LWMC was legally bound to take action against these employees and recover cost in which he miserably failed.

“In fact he has been found protecting them. To resuscitate this failing company, I have designed a cost effective solution with a clear roadmap to build capacity of LWMC which aims to reduce expenditures from fourteen billion to seven billion rupees. However Incumbent Chairman LWMC sole aim is to outsource the operation of the company at an exorbitant cost, also crippling the company’s strength of waste management and disposal. If all the operations of waste management are to be outsourced then that is the need to maintain such huge workforce of officials /officers and machinery at public expense,” he maintained. He said that he has toed his level best to add value to the operations of the company and never exercised influence, obstructed or even toed to thwart the independent functioning of the organisation.

“My association with LWMC is only till such time task was accomplished assigned by your good office. To maintain fair play and restore order in the company. I suggest that financial matters of the organisation may be referred to the NAB for independent inquiry,” he concluded.

Meanwhile, Chairman Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC) has refused to rejoin his seat from which he resigned a few days back after levelling serious allegations on the minister.Sources said the chairman wrote a strong resignation letter in which he made several revelations regarding the alleged political interference by the minister.

Later, the Chairman met Prime Minister Imran Khan who directed him to meet the chief minister. On Tuesday last, the chairman had a meeting with Chief Minister Usman Buzdar and briefed him on the prevailing situation. He told the chief minister about the alleged political interference of Minister Mian Aslam Iqbal in the company day to day affairs.

When contacted, LWMC Chairman Amjed Ali Noon told The News that he will not continue as LWMC’s chairman due to his family issues. He said he has completed the task assigned to him by the chief minister regarding LWMC.