Indian-American appointed to key U.S. Treasury Department post

An Indian-American has been appointed to a key post in the U.S. Department of Treasury.

Jawahar Kaliani has been appointed as the Deputy Chief Information Officer for Application Services Delivery (ASD) at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Department of Treasury.

Taking over the job from Sunday, Mr. Kaliani will lead the development and implementation of complex applications to deliver secure business solutions that meet organisational priorities and support the agency’s mission of ensuring the safety and soundness of national banks and federal savings associations, a statement said.

“Jawahar’s experience has prepared him exceptionally well to serve in this role,” said OCC Chief Information Officer Edward Dorris.

“He is ideally suited to be part of the agency’s senior information technology (IT) team to continue our efforts toward achieving best in class productivity, efficiency and quality for the OCC employees and supervised institutions that depend on us,” Mr. Dorris said.

Mr. Kaliani joins the OCC from Amdocs Inc., where he served as vice-president of Customer Operations Management and led the development, execution and delivery of large-scale services and business IT solutions supporting major telecommunications clients who managed more than $30 billion in annual billings.

He has 20 years of demonstrated experience delivering critical applications in a managed services environment, optimising efficiency and performance to meet the goals of industry leaders.

During his career, Mr. Kaliani established, coached and mentored high-performing, cross-functional teams of more than 700 employees.

Mr. Kaliani holds an executive MBA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a Bachelor of Engineering in IT and Electronics from Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute (VJTI) in Mumbai and a Diploma of Engineering in IT and Electronics from BIT in Mumbai.

Over 50,000 illegal appointments made in Sindh LG Department

KARACHI: About 50,000 illegal appointments had been made in the Sindh Local Government (LG) Department during the last five years, ‘The News’ has learnt here on authority, writes Imdad Soomro.

Earlier, Sindh Minister for Information Sharjeel Inam Memon, who also holds charge of the LG Department, had mentioned 20,000 illegal appointments in the department but a recent report of a departmental inquiry committee suggested that the figure of 20,000 was only for one year, 2012.

The committee disclosed a fraud of appointing nearly 14,000 persons illegally in the LG department in 2013.The department sources told ‘The News’ that the figure of these illegal appointees from 2009 to 2013 is above 50,000 and a team of honest and impartial officers should be appointed to investigate the whole matter.

The illegal appointees caused a heavy burden on the exchequer and the department is now unable to pay salaries to its staff.Following the reports of illegal appointments in the Sindh LG department, the Sindh government appointed Nazeer Dhoon, the then additional secretary and now member of the Chief Minister Inspection Team (CMIT), as inquiry officer.

Dhoon inquired into the matter and submitted a report to the Local Government Secretary Javed Hanif, disclosing the scam.According to the report of Dhoon, a copy available with ‘The News’, illegal appointments were made on the directions of powerful PPP ministers with collaboration of department’s officers. The process started from 2009 and it reached its peak in 2012.

The report further said that the illegal appointments were made in the LG and its subordinate departments — former city governments, district governments and taluka governments. It was also disclosed that hundreds of persons were inducted as employees through fake transfer orders and the concerned officers, without verifying their employments, issued salaries to the illegal appointees.

Thousands of illegal employments were also created in former city government and its subordinate departments like KMC, Water Board, City Warden, Fire Brigade, but, despite the orders of the Sindh government, the record of these appointments was not produced before the inquiry team.

The report declared the department’s former secretary Ali Ahmed Lund as responsible for the matter. It is to be mentioned here that Lund, an officer of federal government, was posted irregularly as LG secretary in previous tenure of the Sindh government. His posting was declared as illegal by the Supreme Court in July 2013 and he was ordered among some other officers to join back their parent departments but despite the apex court orders Lund did not join his parent department and was appointed on an important position as secretary co-operative, Sindh.

Some of the illegal appointments were made on political basis while others were made after getting bribe by the officers of the department.According to the report, Hyderabad Municipal Corporation officer Fakhar Shaikh appointed more than 1,000 persons illegally on contract basis and then confirmed them without provision and the permission of the competent authority; Larkana District Council officer Abdul Qadir Shaikh appointed over 800 persons, Taluka Municipal Administration (TMA) official Asghar Bhand appointed 443 persons, Manjhad TMA’s Aurangzaib Sammo appointed 160, Khairpur Nathan Shah TMA’s Rafiq Shaikh and Abdul Wahid appointed 300 plus, Nawabshah Municipal’s Najaf Rind 200, TMA Jati’s Munawar Mallah 155, Tando TMA’s Ghulam Ali Akbar Bhurt appointed 1,000 plus, Dadu District Council’s Parvez Chandio 400, Salih Pat Town Committee’s Aijaz Palh and Liaqat Kalhoro 300 plus, Dahrki Town Committee’s Hazar Khan Mahar and Abdul Rehman Soomro appointed more than 500, and Khan Garh Town Committee’s Banho Khan Mahar appointed 600 plus.

The report also accused the officers Tariq Hussain Bhugio, Abdul Rasheed Malak, Irshad Hulio, Abdul Qadir Shaikh, Gul Muhammd Khokhar, Ismail Nandwani, Nisar Magsi, Zafar Phulpoto, Nasurullah Sarki of illegal appointments.

It suggested for further and comprehensive investigation through the Anti-Corruption Department, and verification of record of all the employees through Nadra.The Dhoon report said that the investigation regarding illegal appointments in the Sindh LG department was conducted only for one year – 2012 - and insisted for a comprehensive probe i.e. from June 2009 till date.

The report pointed out Liaquat Kalhoro, Aijaz Palh, Rasheed Malak and others, who were appointed illegally in the LG department and then merged their services in other Sindh government departments.

LG Secretary Javed Hanif, confirming about the inquiry report, told ‘The News’ that the matter will be placed before the chief minister for proper action. Replying to a question, Hanif said he was unable to tell actual number of illegal appointees because the matter required more inquiry and scrutiny.

Indian Revenue Department tightened baggage rules to curb illegal Gold Import

Union Government of India (Indian Revenue Department) on 6 March 2014 tightened baggage rules for inbound Indian passengers. According to the step, the passengers will have to provide details of source of funds for importing the metal as well as the air tickets. The baggage rule has been tightened to check gold smuggling in the country and to prevent misuse of gold import facility.

Circulation issued by the Revenue Department circular says that
• The baggage receipt that is issued by the customs will include engraved serial number on gold bars
• The Central Board of Excise & Customs directive has said that the passengers bringing gold in any form, which includes ornaments, will have to declare item-wise inventory that is being imported with baggage receipt

These norms have been revised and tightened following sudden increase (spurt) in import of gold by eligible passengers via airports in the country.

This rule has been hardened as the eligible passengers (Persons of Indian Origin or an Indian returning to India after a period of six months of stay abroad) are allowed to import gold up to 1 kilogram by paying 10 percent customs duty in foreign currency. The passenger should be a passenger who holds a valid passport issued under the Passport Act, 1967.
   
Background
In recent past, the Reserve Bank of India and the Union government have expressed concerns over the sudden increase of import of gold in the country. These increases were also felt even after measures taken by them to curb import of gold to reduce the widened Current Account Deficit (CAD).

Steps taken to curb excessive import of gold to the country were
• Import duty of 10 percent in 2013
• Linking the imports to exports under the 20:80 scheme

Analysis
Tightening of baggage rules have been done even after imposition of 10 percent amount on gold import may be because this step would have triggered gold smuggling in recent past. The eligible passengers have been targeted by the government as smugglers hires eligible passengers or NRIs to import gold in the country.