Ministry of Water and Power has reportedly recommended that the cases of sacked Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Yousaf Awan and other concerned officials of Islamabad Electric Supply Company (Iesco) involved in " dubious" recruitment scam should be sent to National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).
The inquiry report conducted by a three-member committee headed by Deputy Secretary (Power Wing), Suleyman Warraich and approved by the Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Asif and Secretary Younas Dagha has also recommended that all the employees recruited through "fake" process should also be removed.
The report says that it is clearly established without any iota of doubt or contradiction that the recruitment process undertaken in Iesco during 2014-15 was dubious, fabricated and thus illegal. The whole process, based on the facts established by the inquiry committee, consisted of gross irregularities, nepotism and favouritism and was in sheer violation of services rules and advertised criteria.
According to the committee, clearly and explicitly the Iesco Board of Directors (BoD) has been held responsible for failing to perform its duty of supervision and due diligence. The BoD in its 126th meeting validly observed to make future enquiries regarding verifying the 'credentials' of the short-listed firm "Resource Access (Pvt) LTD". Hence it sought further information to this end.
However, the committee was shocked to note that in the very next BoD meeting (127th), the BoD took a U-turn and instead of satisfying its concern earlier shown became a party to the Iesco management by observing that it had no intention of getting into details of recruitment process. The BoD thus left the entire recruitment process to the mercy of the Iesco management; thus miserably failing in its statutory duty of supervising and monitoring the implementation of the whole recruitment process. Hence the final recommendation clearly spells out the responsibility of Iesco BoD and especially its HR committee and BoD member Sarfraz Abdi. It is suggested that the summary for the removal of Iesco BoD may be moved to the competent authority. Further action to fix responsibility will also be taken by a competent forum like NAB or FIA.
The committee observed that the hiring of the testing firm was in clear violation of PPRA rules and the test conducted was totally mismanaged and results were manipulated in connivance with "Iesco management". It necessitates that all appointments carried out by Iesco through M/s Resource Access (Pvt) LTD to be declared null and void/ab initio. The entire recruitment process should be carried out afresh in a transparent and lawful manner. The secretary has fully underscored the need for sending the case of M/s Resource Access for recovery of the funds collected (of 24,730 applicants) to the tune of approximately more than Rs 10 million to NAB or FIA.
The committee has recommended that an inquiry through FIA be initiated against the CEO to fix criminal charges. Tariq Mahmood ex-DG HR who has already been repatriated to his parent department (IB) must be proceeded against by his own department (IB) , the committee has recommended as well as sending his case to FIA for further probe.
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