LAHORE: Millions of rupees have been looted by Postal Life Insurance (PLI) clerks through self-generated and fake schedules of loans issued against PLI policies owned by different policy holders, Daily Times has learnt.
According to details provided by the verification committee, all paid vouchers related to office of PLI AD, Lahore Cantt, until now are around Rs 21,731,452, which has been noticed as misappropriated in 66 PLI policies through 238 transactions made by the clerics with the help of Lahore Cantt GPO staff. As per rules, Pakistan Post Office pays loans requested by PLI.
All PLI policyholders are eligible to get loans against their policy after five years completion of the payment schedule. PLI staff involved in this embezzlement issued loans against different policies without prior permission from PLI policy holders and received cash from GPO Lahore Cantt with fake signatures and GPO staff paid money without verification.
Transactions have been repeated again and again in a few policies. For example, policy Nos, AEA-23682-LHR, owned by Attia Afzal, have been sanctioned loans four times, amounting Rs 4,352,940. Similarly, policy No FTP-(D)-412-LHR, owned by Muhammad Bashir Ahmed, have been sanctioned five times, the total amounting Rs 4,051,000. The settlements of the loans have withdrawn through bogus schedules of loans repaid amounts.
As per details, the regular loans payment schedules carried the signature of the concerned clerk and assistant postmaster along with oblong stamps, designation stamp and post office stamp duly affixed on the payment schedules. These schedules have been countersigned by the assistant director (F) PLO Lahore Cantt GPO. The staff at the loan section of the PLI’s O/O and the PLO general manager have expeditiously settled these loans and released the mortgaged policies and did not verify the amounts of these schedules from the summary sheets/cash account of the Lahore Cantt GPO when it was received at the beginning of the next month as routine.
The loans have been sanctioned without the consent of the PLI policyholders and amount has been misappropriated with the connivance of the Lahore Cantt GPO staff and subsequently the loan has been shown repaid through bogus loan repayment schedules, the source informed.
According to initial details available with the verification committee, total of 550 loan cases were sanctioned from January 2013 to December 2015. Almost 50 percent of the verification-work of the loan cases during these three years has been completed.
Around one million rupees has been recovered and the rest of the money has accepted and accounted for by the alleged clerks, informed an official.
The fraud was unearthed when chief postmaster Lahore Cantt GPO reshuffled cash-counter staff as per routine. Same PLI clerk brought loan requests which were turned down by the newly transferred staff and asked the clerk to bring requested documents along with policy holders, which he did not produce.
Upon checking previous payment records it was found that huge amounts were issued against many similar PLI policies. A committee was formed to investigate and found both PLI and GPO staff guilty.
After completion of the inquiry, the case was handed over to NAB and seven PLI and three Lahore Cantt GPO staff were arrested.
The PLI staffer attempted to set fire to the record by placing phosphorus in the Loan Account Section, which was removed immediately and postal authority had registered FIR No 121/16 in Old Anarkali Police Station on March 11, 2016.
The inquiry committee reported later on March 14, 2016, after scanning CCTV cameras, that the two persons who tried to set the office on fire had been identified as Iftikhar Ahmed, UDC from the office of AD (F) PLI, Lahore Cantt GPO; and Abdul Qadir, canvassing agent and nephew of Iftikhar Ahmed.