NA body told Rs 559 million misappropriation detected in PPO

A parliamentary panel was on Thursday informed that 538 cases of misappropriation, corruption and fraud involving loss of Rs 559 million were detected in the Pakistan Post Office Department during last five years (2009-14).
Pakistan Post deals with cash to the tune of Rs 6.5 billion on daily basis. Total cash transactions for five years comes to around Rs 1200 billion ie 0.4 percent of the total. This was revealed in the National Assembly Standing Committee on Communications which met with Sufyan Yusul in the chair here on Thursday.
The Director General, Pakistan Post briefed the Committee that 538 cases of misappropriation involving loss of Rs 559 million were discovered during the last five years (2009-14). About 212 cases were registered including 83 in Police, 30 in National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and 99 in Federal Investigation Agency (FIA). He informed that Rs I07 million had been recovered from the officials who were at fault and they were taken to task according to the quantum of their offences.
He further said that Lahore Circle topped the list where 172 cases were detected followed by Karachi Circle with 67 and Rawalpindi Circle with 52 cases while most number of fraud cases ie 138 had been detected during 2009-10.
The officials further informed the Committee that 405 Post Offices were opened and 584 were closed throughout the country during last five years. About 336 properties/ housing units have been encroached by other departments/unauthorised persons where Karachi PMG top the list with 182 including 180 residential buildings and two vacant plots. The Committee directed to vacate the properties/housing units' encroached upon by other departments/un-authorised persons.
The committee also discussed the Pakistan Private Courier Services Regulatory Authority Bill, 2015. The Additional Secretary Ministry of Communication and Additional Director General, Pakistan Post gave detailed briefing on the Bill. Pakistan Post proposed that the Ministry of Communication may be authorised by amending the Rules of Business to issue licenses to Private Courier companies and to regulate the affairs of the companies in the absence of the private courier companies' regularity authority. After the briefing the Committee decided that Ministry of Communications may chalk out a frame work on this issue and submit it in the next meeting for further discussion.
The committee observed that many employees were dismissed from the government departments including National Highway Authority (NHA) while holding fake educational degrees. The Committee recommended to the Post Office Department to scrutinise the educational degrees and appraise the committee about final report.