MULTAN: The district accounts office paid more than Rs2 million for petrol purchase out of the amount meant for other purposes, Dawn has learnt.

Documents available with this correspondent show that the staff of the district accounts office without approval of the finance department paid more than Rs2 million through eight transactions of three departments under the title of “Details of voucher paid to petrol pumps against pay and allowances and utility charges.”

According to the documents, Rs213,058 were paid on Dec 12, 2014, to Caltex City Chungi through Document No 1903766217 under the object of A01270 that is meant for different allowances, Rs249,744 were paid on March 20, 2015, to Labbaik Petroleum Service through Document No 1903888036 under the object of A03202 that is meant for telephone charges, Rs105,184 were paid on June 24, 2015, to Labbaik Petroleum Service through Document No 19040441 under the object of A03203, Rs445,504 were paid on Sept 11, 2014, to Royals Petroleum through Document No 1903625579 under the object of A03303 that is meant for electricity charges, Rs108,186 were paid on Sept 11, 2014 to Jamal Petroleum Services through Document No 1903626646 under the object of A03303, Rs96,117 were paid on Dec 18, 2014 to Ever Green Filling Station through Document No 1903739156 under the object of A03303, Rs341,712 were paid on March 20 to Labbaik Petroleum through Document No 1903888037 under the object of A03303 and Rs465,552 were paid on June 24, 2015 to Labbaik Petroleum through Document No 1903933681 under the object of A03303.

Sources said the staff of accounts office was not authorised to pay the amount for the purchase of petrol as the budget was already consumed by the departments concerned. These departments had been given codes of MN-4416, MN-4227 and MN-4198. Six transactions are only of the department with code No MN-4227.

They said the claim should have to return to the departments concerned with objection while mentioning that the budget for the petrol had already been consumed. They said the officials of all the four departments were involved in embezzlement. They said “the computer system of accounts department does not accept the claim if the budget has already been consumed or the amount that is being claimed is more than the amount available in the budget.”

They said the object codes had been given to various items and the amount would be paid by pressing the specific code. They said the staff of accounts office paid Rs2.075 million for the purchase of petrol by using other objects instead of the object for petroleum (A03807).

They said the auditor completes the entire procedure while the deputy district officer (DDO) and district officer accounts are bound to verify the entire procedure before approving the amount. And it is the duty of the DDO to verify the availability of amount in the budget against specific object.

Sources said the fraud was unearthed by an inspection team of finance department a couple of weeks ago and efforts were under way to hush up the issue. They said the DDO was sent on leave for three months after the issue was unearthed.

Tahir Abbas Bukhari, an auditor, said it was not a fraud but mere procedural fault. He said wrong codes were punched mistakenly and such a mistake could be corrected by adjusting the accounts. He said he had nothing to do with all this as Abdul Ghaffar was the auditor concerned.

Abdul Ghaffar denied his involvement in the issue, saying he did not deal with the financial affairs of the departments.

Published in Dawn October 1st, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play