Although the country is in grip of financial crisis, the Additional Chief Secretary Sindh (ACS) Nazar Hussain Mahar, who has the political backing of ruling Pakistan Peoples Party-led government, is misusing billions of rupees public money on unnecessary schemes, further denting the exchequer wilfully.
According to a complaint letter obtained exclusively by Business Recorder from the reliable sources, the ACS was also influencing the activities of the officials at the Planning and Development Department, the provincial secretaries and District Co-ordination Officers (DCOs).
The secretaries of all the provincial departments had sent a letter to President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani and Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah complaining about the misuse of power and public money.
According to letter, the ACS called thousands of unnecessary and unscheduled meetings with no results seen on ground. The meetings start from 9am to 9pm daily and all officials of the Planning and Development, as well as other departments are facing problems for sitting daily until 9pm, while the public funds are being used for tea, biscuits, lunches and dinners in five-star hotels.
The electricity has also been misused, as some 40 air-conditioners, bulbs, lights and other machinery remain switched on till late in the night, it said.
The letter says: "Due to this unnecessary exercise, stationery and machinery have also been used costing the exchequer billions of rupees with no fruitful results seen. His liking and disliking is another point that needs further elaboration.
Apart from likes and dislikes, the letter said the lecturers in BPS 17 and 18 scales from colleges were called and made in-charges of the newly created cells/units such as GBS, SCIP, PPPU, SGRRP and Tevta and the salaries for these officials have been fixed at Rs 150,000, besides project allowances not less than Rs 50,000 per month.
However, the fact remains that the project allowance does not exist in the province but the ACS (Dev) is approving it in development schemes and billions of rupees public funds go to the civil servants of Sindh government, the letter pointed out.
As people are suffering from poverty, dearness and unemployment, the ACS is approving unnecessary schemes and project allowances including luxury vehicles without any approval of the competent authority," the letter added.
When contacted, the official sources said that the ACS had announced the revised project allowances on February 16, 2009, for both locally and foreign funded programmes costing over Rs 500 million to give comfort to the officials who are in Nazar Hussains Good Book.
According to the revised allowance, an officer of BPS 20-22, working on a project would be provided with Rs 50,000 allowance, BPS 19 Rs 40,000, BPS 17-18 Rs 30,000, BPS 16 Rs 15,000, BPS 11-15 Rs 8,000, BPS 5-10 Rs 4,000 and BPS 1-4 Rs 2,000 per month, the sources said.
"The officers posted on deputation would be entitled to get deputation allowance at 20 percent subject to a maximum of Rs 6,000 per month," they added. The additional charge allowance at the rate of 20 percent of the basic pay scale (BPS) subject to the maximum of Rs 6,000 per month or as revised from time to time will be granted to the government servants, who are assigned on additional charge of posts of the project costing up to Rs 500 million. However, they will not be entitled to the project allowance.
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