ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has granted approval to close investigation into the ‘controversial’ recruitment of 90 officials on BPS-17 and BPS-18 at Islamabad Electric Supply Company (IESCO).
Documents available with Pakistan Today disclose that a regional board meeting of NAB held on April 25, 2017, had approved closure of investigation under section (u/s) 9 ( c ) of NAO 1999 against 90 officers of BPS-17 and BPS- 18 of IESCO and others. Later, NAB director general (DG) filed the application for closure of the investigation.
“In view of minutes of the regional board meeting, application of NAB DG and statement of the investigation officer (IO), the considered view is that trial worthy case is not made out by evidence collected by the IO. Approval u/s 9 of NAO 199 for the closure of investigation against officers/officials of IESCO is hereby accorded and application in hand stands accepted. File to record room,” said the documents.
It is also learnt that the IO has explained that there were seventeen complaints out of which six were found anonymous, two were found pseudonymous and five were not made part of the investigation. One complaint was withdrawn whereas three out of seventeen complainants have appeared and recorded their statements as the investigation was conducted in the case.
“Recruitment procedure was not completed in a transparent manner and bribery and favouritism were also alleged,” documents said.
The illegal recruitment of 90 officers was started through advertisements made in the news paper of March 8, 2015, where ‘Resources Access Pvt Ltd’ was engaged for taking a written test and short listing of candidates. Subsequently, two committees were constituted for interviewing the short listed candidates.
The documents also revealed that the investigation officer had found some irregularities in the work of s Resources Access Pvt Ltd but those irregularities were short of nature to affect the merit of the selection of candidates. “No Mala Fide and ‘mens rea’ on part of recruiting authority and M/s Resource Access Pvt Ltd could be traced out, and on the basis of the investigation, IO is of the opinion that a trial worthy case is made out,” read the document.
It was also pointed out that the officers were recruited on a contract basis for one year, but their contract was not extended by the authority. The period of the contract had also expired in 2016.
Recruitment process at IESCO was started by IESCO Director General (DG) (Admin) Tariq Mahmood who belonged to Sialkot and got induction as IESCO chief engineer during 2013 with the help of Federal Minister Khawaja Asif. However, IESCO officials showed strict resistance over the induction of Tariq Mahmood as a chief engineer because he did not have an engineering degree and required experience for the said position.
Later, another notification for Mahmood’s induction on deputation as DG (Admin) was made. Similarly, a Sialkot based company ‘Resources Access’ was awarded a contract on March 8, 2015, to perform the short-listing of candidates, conduct tests and hold interviews for the said responsible slots at the company. The company subsequently collected Rs450 from each candidate as process fee and gathered Rs12.2 million.
Sources at IESCO said that former CEO of IESCO had set aside the rules and merit on the insistence of Khawaja Asif and DG (Admin) while appointing the kith and kin of blue-eyed officials of the company. They said that violation of merit was done in the recruitment of 90 officials as candidates with social sciences degrees were appointed on engineering post of BPS-18.
Senior officials of NAB had pressurized IESCO Employees Union General Secretary Manzoor Kazmi, who was also a complainant of such controversial recruitments, to withdraw his complaint or disassociate with the case otherwise get ready to face serious consequences, said sources.
Ironically, former Water and Power Secretary Younus Dagha along with Pakistan Electric Power Company (PEPCO) had conducted an inquiry against the alleged recruitments of officials at IESCO and suspended all the newly recruited officers of BPS-17 and BPS-18 on finding violations of rules and merit criterion. And, former IESCO Chief Executive Officer Yusuf Awan was also allegedly involved in the recruitments.
However, a regional board under Rawalpindi NAB DG has now approved the closure of investigation, which as per sources was made possible after a passage of one and a half years with the change of enquiry officer.
