Unauthorised investment by NLC: inquiry body hands over report to CoAS

The independent inquiry committee of military officers has completed its investigation on the unauthorised investment of Rs 4.3 billion by National Logistics Cell (NLC) as well as other irregularities and handed over the findings to the Chief of Army Staff (CoAS), General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, for his consideration.
General Kayani had taken serious notice of the alleged NLC irregularities and had set up an inquiry committee in November 2010 after PAC was about to take a final decision in the light of three report findings submitted to the committee. However, the PAC secretariat confirmed that neither the TOR of the committee nor the findings of the army sponsored report has so far been shared with it. PAC Member Yasmeen Rehman hailed the decision of COAS to take what she termed ''suo motu'' action in the NLC scam, which has set a precedent.
She said that fixing responsibility in the case of misuse of public money is the constitutional obligation of the concerned Departmental Audit Committee (DAC). PAC takes decision in the light of recommendations of DAC, she added. A Corps Commander was nominated to head the inquiry along with two major generals as members of the inquiry committee by COAS.
Currently, the status of NLC in government documents is not clear. Under government rules of business, GHQ has administrative control of the Cell, but financial matters come under Planning and Development Division. Auditors had reported to the PAC that the NLC had obtained Rs 4.3 billion in loans from banks for investing in the stock market and suffered Rs 1.84 billion losses.
It was also stated that NLC ex-chief Lieutenant General (Retd) Muhammad Afzal Zafar, Major General (Retd) Khalid Zaheer Akhtar and Chief Financial Officer Saeedur Rehman had approved loans of Rs 75 million to Japan Power General, a power generation firm, in total violation of rules.
In another case, NLC imported vehicles after getting exemption from customs duty and sales tax by producing fake certificates that the vehicles were imported for defence purposes. The PAC had suspended its hearing on the case till completion of independent inquiry by military committee.