According to documents available with ‘The News,’ the new BISP Secretary Rab Nawaz made payment of Rs2.6 million to an NGO owned by a US-national without approval of the scrutiny committee just a few days after assuming his post.
The powerful secretary has also immediately removed an honest internal auditor who had unearthed the corruption of Rs150 million in award of a consultancy contract worth Rs2.63 billion.
When contacted, BISP Chairman Enver Baig confirmed that due process was not followed by the secretary in releasing the payment to the NGO. “It has come to my notice, and I will take necessary action over the issue,” Baig added.
Nawaz, a BPS-20 officer, has already been served notices by BISP Chairman Enver Baig, but he denies both allegations saying that he took these actions on merit.But the past record of the new BISP secretary is far from being ideal. He was removed from the post of the Punjab Irrigation and Power Secretary after he was found guilty of negligence during devastating floods of 2010 by a judicial commission, constituted by Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif.
The commission has not only recommended immediate removal of Rab Nawaz from the post but also asked for inquiry against him after he was found responsible for loss of hundreds of lives and of property worth tens of billions of rupees.
The report of the commission concluded that the officer had failed to meet the monumental challenge of two floods in the River Indus during the 2010 monsoon, causing widespread devastation. But the officer of the powerful District Management Group again managed to get the prize posting in the province as secretary energy. However, he could not satisfy the fast-paced chief minister with his performance in the energy sector and was subsequently removed for failing to initiate any new power project in the province.
But sources said this past record could not deter a powerful federal minister from orchestrating his posting as BISP secretary last month. Immediately after his posting, Mr Nawaz released a payment of Rs2.6 million to a US-based NGO which is locally run by two retired military officers. The BISP chairman took serious notice of the irregularity and issued a notice to the secretary to explain as to why the agreed procedure was not followed.
“Chairman has taken serious view of the situation especially when this was emphasised by the BISP secretary during weekly meeting that all outstanding liabilities are to be submitted to secretary after the scrutiny committee meeting,” says the letter No2(9)/DS/HR(CP)BISP-2013, dated April 2, 2014. Sources said the second action taken by the secretary was to remove Muhammad Saleem, Director Internal Audit at BISP, who pointed out massive irregularities in award of a multi-billion contract to a service provider.
In his audit report, titled ‘Internal Audit of BISP Donor Funded Projects for the Financial Year 2011-12 and 2012-13’, Saleem disclosed that some BISP officials gave undue favour to a consultant causing a loss of Rs149.84 million to the programme.
The report says BISP hired consultancy services to the tune of Rs2,630,889,571 for undertaking various activities like Poverty Scorecard Survey, Impact Evaluation, Spot Check and baseline Survey in January 2011. “It has been observed that instead of deducting income tax from the total cost of the contract, additional provision has been made for income tax amounting to Rs149,845,152,” says the report, a copy of which is available with ‘The News’.
“The consultant submitted financial proposal exclusive of taxes which means indirect taxes will be added to the cost, but the BISP management added value of direct tax i.e. income tax which is against the provisions of Section 152 and 153 of the Income Tax Ordinance 2001,” says the report.
Instead of being rewarded for his work, the officer was transferred by the BISP secretary. This is despite the fact that Internal Auditor is supposed to directly report to the chairman and not to the secretary. The influence of the DMG officer is evident from the fact that he managed to get posting of a Grade-21 officer from BISP to Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC), reversed within 7 days of his transfer.
“The Establishment Division’s notification dated March 27, 2014, regarding transfer of Dr Mukhtar Ahmad, a BPS-21 officer of the Secretariat Group from the post of BISP director general and his posting as IPC Division’s senior joint secretary is hereby withdrawn, ab initio,” says a notification issued on April 3, 2014.
Sources said the BISP chairman was not happy with the performance of Dr Mukhtar, but the secretary managed to bring back his blue-eyed DG in the programme within a week. When contacted for his version, BISP Secretary Rab Nawaz said that the payment of Rs2.7 million was released on merit. He said the service provider had submitted his bill six months ago but the scrutiny committee never met nor examined his case.
“So I asked the service provider to hold a presentation in the presence of the committee members and when no one objected to the performance of the said service provider I directed them to release the payment,” he said.
Referring to the transfer of the internal auditor, Nawaz said the officer had completed his five-year tenure so he was transferred. He also claimed that there were certain audit paras against him.
The secretary added that he was asked to work in BISP on the basis of his past experience with poverty reduction programmes in Pakistan and abroad and with foreign funding agencies.“I have worked with Asian Development Bank, IFAD and UN agencies on poverty alleviation so the government decided to appoint me in BISP,” he said.
When asked about reversal of the transfer of Dr Mukhtar Ahmad, done on his own request, within seven days, the secretary said Mr Ahmad had worked with BISP for four years so he had institutional memory and as a new incumbent he needed his help to get full understanding of the programme.
“During first week of my arrival in BISP, Dr Mukhtar was transferred and there was no one to brief me about important issues so I requested the Establishment Division to allow him to stay back for some time so that I can better understand the programme during my initial period,” he said.
When asked about the reports that he was sacked twice in Punjab over poor performance, Mr Nawaz denied these reports and said that it was a matter of official record if someone would bother to check. And as for his integrity and repute was concerned, that could easily be verified from anyone in the offices he previously served.
He was asked about the reports that the Flood Enquiry Tribunal had held him responsible for poor management of the flood, he replied that Punjab government had not agreed with commission’s findings and therefore, no action was initiated against him.
About the institutional issues in BISP, the secretary said that no proper rules had been framed in BISP to define the roles and guide the work of various offices. Once the rules were framed, there would be no issue in proper working of BISP, he said.
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