ISLAMABAD: The top brass of Department of Plant Protection (DPP) is reportedly on the radar of National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and Ministry of National Food Security and Research for alleged rampant corruption and cancellation of registration of a company which has imported Methyl Bromide from China.
Ministry of National Food Security and Research, which administers DPP, has constituted a one-man internal inquiry committee against the concerned officials.
According to sources the case has landed in NAB, presently, the affairs of DPP are being run by Food Commissioner, one Director, Entomologist, Assistant Entomologist and acting Director General.
The complainant stated that he had applied for import registration of Methyl Bromide in May 2019 to DPP. After the application, the firm realised that DPP had not given permission to import methyl bromide since 2012.
On October 21, 2020, the complainant was granted import registration after 18 months struggle and fulfilling all the requirements and formalities.
After registration, the company placed the order for Methyl Bromide, 320 cylinders (16,000kg) and its consignment arrived in Karachi from China on January 13, 2021. Before the arrival of the consignment the importer realised that the incumbent Director General was trying to cancel the registration and therefore filed a case in Islamabad high court to stop the DG, DPP from cancelling registration until consignment is cleared from the port.
After the company paid all the customs duties, the DPP inspector entomologist inspected the containers and found everything was according to the DPP rules and regulations and submitted the report to the DPP for the release order on January 15, 2021. Normally, the DPP issues the NOC for releasing the consignment within 24 hours to facilitate the importer to avoid demurrage.
According to the complainant the DPP representative gave the statement to the Islamabad high court that DPP has not taken any action and nor do they have any intention to cancel the registration because the registration is fully legal and intact.
After this statement, the present DG issued a show cause notice on January 25, 2021 for a hearing which took place on February 1, 2021 and cancelled registration the next day i.e. February 02, 2021.
The sources said, DPP is under investigation by different agencies.
Ministry of National Food Security and Research is conducting an inquiry on the issue with a one-man inquiry committee headed by Dr Khalid Abdullah.
When contacted Dr Khalid Abdullah confirmed that he is conducting an inquiry on the complaint of Ahmad & Kamran Traders (Pvt) Islamabad. He said, inquiry report will be submitted to the Secretary in a week's time.
Some questions were also sent to Dr Waseem ul Hasan, who replied that all statements are false.
"I am not in DPP but working in the Ministry. Minister and Secretary are directly looking at the affairs of DPP and issuing directives to DG, DPP," he added.
According to Dr Waseem, Dr Falak Naz the DG, DPP who spent two years in the organisation has been sent back to his parent department, i.e. Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARC).
The sources said, FIA has also started an inquiry into the charges of corruption and unfair cancellation of registration of Ahmad & Kamran Traders (Pvt).
When contacted, Secretary Ministry of National Food Security and Research, Ghufran Memon confirmed that he has constituted a fact-finding committee on this issue, which however, has not yet submitted its report.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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