TAXILA, Jan 27: A scam amounting to Rs2.149 million at Sui Northern Gas Pipelines (SNGPL) has surfaced in Wah Cantonment area.

SNGPL officials said that Atif Ameen, senior supervisor cashier at a distribution centre, embezzled pubic money amounting to Rs2.149 million.

The method employed by the cashier was to claim fake bills from the company under the heads of labourers’ wages and TA/DA of employees and also by tampering with the daily wage sheets of the employees as well as vouchers.

Apparently, the practice of claiming fake bills went undetected for a long time.

According to SNGPL officials the whole scam was unearthed by senior accounts staff, in July 2010, and was immediately brought to the notice of senior officials. But the investigation process lingered on for two years.

After the scam was detected, a probe team led by senior officials from Islamabad visited Wah office and sealed the whole record and initiated a probe in September, 2010.

However, it took two years to prove that the accused had indeed made fake claims and embezzled the money.

The main accused was terminated from service and a few senior officers were penalised for negligence, said SNGPL official. The department has, however, failed to recover the money.

The SNGPL therefore registered a case against the accused official in order to recover the money but none has been recovered so far.

Investigation Officer Zareen Shah, when contacted, confirmed that on the complaint of SNGPL, the Wah Cantt police had registered a case against the former employee.

On the other hand, in charge distribution office SNGPL, Wah Cantt, Engr Rafeeq Ahmed, also confirmed that an inquiry was conducted by a team from SNGPL head office Islamabad and the accused was found guilty, during the probe.

However, Mr Rafeeq said that he was not aware of the proceedings of the case but added that the department had confiscated his service emoluments and had gotten police help to arrest the accused and recover the embezzled money.