A senior official of Pakistan State Oil (PSO), who has been accused of involvement in base oil import scam by the former government, has approached Petroleum Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi to re-initiate an inquiry to identify the guilty. According to a letter a copy of which is available with this correspondent, General Manager PSO Nadeem Memon claimed that he was made a scapegoat in base oil import scam in order to protect the favourites close to the top guns of previous government.
During the tenure of previous government, a tender of base oil import was scrapped on the pretext that could have caused a loss of $3 million to the national exchequer, the letter continued. "Now that the new government is in place, I sincerely hope that this matter would be re-evaluated on merit and in an unbiased manner," he wrote. The letter further states that during his tenure in 2011, a top figure in government had summoned him to his residence where a senior PSO official was also present. The former top government functionary had instructed that official to import Group-2 Base Oil immediately.
Memon further claimed in his letter that the import of base oil was the sole responsibility of Lubricants Department, but later on, the import of base oil was transferred to Supply Department ignoring his protest. He said that demand of import of base oil was raised by Lubricant Department which prepared and made technical evaluation. "I was very well aware of the whole issue and in order to make this tender extremely transparent, I took the tender along with all the bids to the white oil import committee which again was headed by [that official who was present at the then government functionary's house]," he said.
"For the first time in base oil import history, I presented the base oil tender along with all bids and correspondence to the MANCON which is the highest decision-making body in the company and is headed by the Managing Director," he said adding that at this forum, his department had acted as a service department and had no say whatsoever in the final decision.
He said that it is vitally important to note here that after MANCON awarded the tender, it was scrapped by MD PSO upon direct tenders of the Chairman PSO, who being a non-executive chairman had no authority to issue such directives. Tender was scrapped and nothing was imported and an inquiry was launched.
On the other hand, he said PSO procured almost 10000 tons of base oil without tender and in flagrant violation of PPRA Rules which auditors had also pointed out and investigation is underway by Petroleum Ministry. "I am ready to face any inquiry by the ministry as I have no faith in the management who are more interested in saving their cronies and covering their misdeeds," he added.