RAWALPINDI, Aug 7: The Rawalpindi Town Administrator has detected four misappropriation cases against the Rawal Town Municipal Administration (RTMA) officials and has forwarded them to the District Coordination Officer for disciplinary action.

Rawal Town Administrator Saif Anwar Jappa suspended four officials while forfeiting their five-year service from January to July 2012, and terminated two others.

Last week, he detected a difference of Rs2.4 million in uplift schemes prepared by the engineering branch of the RTMA. He suspended sub engineer Raja Rasib for over-spending as he exceeded the estimated cost of the schemes.

The case was forwarded to the District Coordination Officer (DCO) Saqib Zafar for departmental action against the sub engineer.
The RTMA is waiting for the DCO’s final decision for the departmental action which will be received after Ramazan.

Sources say that the administrator visited the area in Satellite Town, along Benazir Bhutto Road in PP-14 constituency of PML-N MPA Raja Hanif Advocate, and found that the engineering branch spent more than the allotted funds for the streets, street lights and nullahs that were constructed six months ago.

Agitated, the administrator suspended the sub engineer and ordered an ongoing check of the 147 uplift schemes in the city worth Rs100 million.

When contacted, the administrator admitted that he had forwarded the case of sub engineer to the DCO for departmental action.
He said that the provincial government was directed to strictly ensure the quality of work in the uplift schemes, and stopped the misappropriation cases.

He said that it has been brought to his attention that TMA officials have been receiving commission from the contractors before being issued work orders for the uplift schemes, so he changed the system to discourage the TMA officials to get commission.“Under the new system, the Town Municipal Officer will send the work orders directly to the home addresses of the contractors soon after the open auction of development scheme contracts,” he explained.

The administrator said that he launched an inquiry into the complaints and found that some officials were involved in getting commission for the development work and other matters. He said that he warned the officials that the departmental action would be taken against those who were caught red handed accepting bribes or other benefits from the contractors.

The administrator further explained that he had taken departmental action against some officials from January to July. Abdul Qayyum Khan and Sajjad Hussain Shah, building inspectors, were suspended, and as a result the administrator forfeited his five-year service for allowing private building owners to violate the building bylaws. Sheikh Ijaz, Union Council Officer, was suspended for selling the debris of the former Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation (RMC) office building at City Saddar Road. Raja Sajid Mehmood, Tax branch clerk, was suspended for being bribed during the recovery campaign. Mohammad Fayyaz and Haseebur Rehman, clerk, went abroad without getting ex-Pakistan leave, and were terminated.