Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Upper House was informed on Monday that the postal department had suffered a loss of Rs 460.8 million in three years – from 2014 to 2016.

Briefing the Senate Standing Committee on Communication – met under the chairmanship of Daud Khan Achakzai – the Pakistan Post director general said that corruption, misappropriation and embezzlement by officials had caused massive losses to the department.

The DG told the committee that a total of 224 cases – 146 of embezzlement/fraud involving Rs 408.1 million and 78 of theft and robbery involving Rs 52.7 million – had been registered during the three years. These cases were registered by the police, National Accountability Bureau and the Federal Investigation Agency, he said.

The official stated that the Pakistan Post’s daily financial transactions stood at Rs 4.6 billion, while the annual figures were to the tune of Rs 1.38 trillion. He said that the amount of loss/fraud was 0.009 percent of the annual cash handling. “The department has recovered Rs 101.7 million so far, including 24 percent in embezzlement and only 7.2 percent in robbery cases.”

The DG said that 773 employees were involved in loss/fraud and cases of 721 had so far been decided, while those of 52 were under process.

About 93 percent of cases had been decided and the corrupt officials awarded punishment, he said.

The committee chairman said that despite the passage of more than four years, post offices had not been transferred on software. He directed the DG to immediately start work at all post offices in this regard.

National Highway Authority (NHA) Chairman and Communication Secretary Shahid Ashraf Tarar said that revamping of the Pakistan Post would be completed by end of the current year.

About the Pakistan revamping strategy, officials informed the House that for the mobile money solution, expression of interests (EOIs) from 26 companies had been received, while requests for information (RFIs) were called from nine companies.

The officials said that brand name registration was underway through the IPO of Pakistan, and added that a consultant had been hired for launching the project. The House was informed that the Public Private Partnership Policy had been framed in this regard.

About the Pakistan Post Logistics Company, the officials said that the EOIs had been received from 16 companies, while RFIs were received from six companies. Registration of logo/full name/brand name had been processed, while interviews for hiring a consultant for postlog were conducted, officials said.

The Pakistan Post Logistics Services (Pvt) Limited has been incorporated in the SECP and the process of hiring of consultant is underway, the House was informed. Pakistan Post officials admitted that no substantial work had been done on re-branding the department, as EOI for re-branding Pakistan Post was under process of publication. Re-branding of some post offices had been completed within the existing resources of Pakistan Post budget, which included G-8 Markaz PO, Islamabad, D-Block Pak Secretariat Islamabad, Attock City Post Office, Gujjar Khan GPO, Muzaffarabad GPO, Bagh GPO, Plandari GPO, DHA Karachi PO, EP Centre Karachi, Shahre-e-Faisal PO Karachi, Khayaban-e-Sir Syed PO Rawalpindi, RA Bazaar PO, Ghalib Market Gulberg PO and Pindi Bhattian PO.

A summary for upgrading/re-branding of post offices throughout Pakistan is being prepared for approval/provision of funds, which will be sent to the prime minister.

The officials informed the House that the minutes of the direction of Senate’s Standing Committee on Communications regarding using Pakistan Post services by all the ministries/divisions/departments had been sent to the establishment secretary for implementation. It had been circulated by the Cabinet Division to all the ministries/departments concerned, while the Ministry of Science and Technology and Higher Education Commission extended their consent, they said.

The committee members expressed annoyance over the delay in recruitment of 171 officials under the Aghaz-e-Haqooq Balochistan, saying that the department had failed to get vacated the stay order even after a passage of a year. The committee recommended hiring competent lawyers to get the stay order vacated and starting the recruitment process.