Daily Times

KARACHI: Sindh Ombudsman Asad Ashraf Malik has directed the Sindh chief secretary (CS) and the Local Government Department (LGD) secretary to send cases against officials of Local Taxes (Advertisement), Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, to the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) pertaining to alleged misappropriation of funds and illegal allotments of sites for installation of hi-marks, gantries, triangles, billboards, streamer and banners in the city.

Masood Merchant, senior executive member of Sindh Outdoor Advertisement Association (SOAA), in a complaint to the ombudsman on November 12, 2013, had alleged that Senior Director Akhtar Ali Shaikh, Director Abdul Rashid Khan, Deputy Director Naseem Ahmad and KMC Additional Director (Local Taxes) Syed Ghani were involved in misappropriation of funds to the tune of Rs 800 million by awarding contracts for installation of roadside publicity of products in violation of entity’s by-laws.

He claimed that such contracts had been given without legal auction as prescribed in by-laws, besides payment of government taxes.

On February 17, 2015, the ombudsman ordering both the secretaries had directed them to inquire into the matter and take action against the officials within 60 days. Although these officials had been suspended, the ACE had neither substantiated an inquiry nor lodged a first information report against them.

“After no action and chilled performance of the ACE, the SOAA members have again requested the ombudsman to look into the matter, he said.

He said that the officials were also holding additional charge of different key posts, Naseem Ahmad was serving in Charged Parking, while Syed Ghani was serving as KMC Human Resource Department additional director, Abdul Rashid Khan as a staff officer to LDG Minister Jam Khan Shoro, and Akhtar Sheikh as municipal commissioner of the District Municipal Corporation East.

“The illegal steps of these officials during their stay at the KMC Local Tax Department entails granting permission to install non-permissible roadside boards on green belts, allotments of gantries on II Chundrigar Road without auction, allotment of triangles meant for beautification to favourite companies, ” the SOAA member told the ombudsman.

“The officials also misappropriated funds worth Rs 17.18 million deposited in the Habib Bank Limited, Civic Centre branch as had been reported by Noor Baloch, additional director (Legal) under vide letter Dir (legal)/LT/ (ADVT)/KMC/571, on August 15, 2014.

The SOAA member alleged that Abdul Rashid had awarded contracts to install billboards to a private university against pay orders amounting to Rs 1 million and Rs 0.847 million on January 29, 2014 and February 7, 2014, respectively, but pay orders were never deposited in the government exchequer.

A spokesman for the Ombudsman Office while commenting on the issue said that the LGD and ACE remained hesitant in taking any action against the officials on one pretext or the other.

SOAA President Rahat Muhammad Ali and General Secretary Fareed Ahmed were of the view that despite directives from the ombudsman to the LGD and the ACE officials in 2015, both the government entities had been miserably failed to comply with the orders.

Published in Daily Times, November 2^nd 2017.