Official claims Sindh HR Dept lavishly spent on ex-caretaker minister

KARACHI: The Sindh government’s Human Rights Department spent Rs20 million on payment of utility bills of the caretaker minister’s residence, maintenance of his office, lunches, walks and seminars during his five-month tenure, claims a senior official.

Department’s Additional Secretary Fazal Hussain Avesi, who also held the additional charge of the drawing and disbursing officer, claimed in his official statement expenditure of over Rs13 million on purchase of stationary and miscellaneous items, over Rs4 million on walk and seminars and Rs3 million to foot the utility bills of the minister’s residence and office maintenance.

The issue surfaced when department’s Secretary Tehsin Fatima approached the Chief Secretary of Sindh on March 7, 2024, to initiate of inquiry against Additional Secretary and DDO Fazal Hussain Avesi for allegedly embezzling Rs15.133 million during five months of his DDO-charge (October 2023 to February 2024). Avesi was transferred from his office.

On February 21, 2024, Avesi was asked by the Human Rights Department to refund Rs8.45 million withdrawn by him in November, December 2023 and January 2024 without any prior approval of the secretary. In his official response, Avesi maintained that Rs2.169 million alone were spent to meet different expenses of the secretary. Furthermore, he spent Rs 4.207 million on the walks and seminars held by the ministry, Rs. 607,500 were spent on maintenance of the caretaker minister’s office, Rs.711,112 on the miscellaneous expenses of minister’s office, Rs. 293,689 spent on minister’s lunch, Rs. 472,500 spent on his petrol, Rs. 1.063 million for the electricity bill of minister’s residence, Rs. 64,332 for the gas bill and Rs. 123,920 on the water bill of the minister’s residence.

If this was not all, the additional secretary also mentioned purchasing a laptop for Rs.7,42,500. This included the laptop cost of Rs0.5.5 million and tax amount of Rs0.19 million. He also mentioned spending Rs0.47 million spent on two employees and one driver. He also spent Rs80,000 on purchase of chocolates, which after payment of Rs28,000 tax, cost the department Rs108,000. He also claimed to have spent Rs55,404 on purchase of magazine, paid Rs209,587 in cash to staff, spent Rs226,800 on purchase of extra petrol and Rs4,05,000 on purchase of air tickets. He also mentioned Rs5.043 million expenditure on purchase of milk powder, tea bags, room spray, soap and stationary items including ball pens, pencils, tissue papers, paper rims, books, etc.

When The News approached Additional Secretary Fazal Hussain Avesi, he refuted all allegations leveled against him and shared the details of the expenditure he had submitted to the department. When he was asked about spending official money on purchase of chocolates and bearing the huge expanses on the minister’s home and office, and purchase of household items, the additional secretary suggested this scribe to raise this question with the secretary of the Human Rights Department.

This scribe also contacted former caretaker minister Omar Soomro, about the millions of rupees spent on his utility bills, lunch, and office maintenance, he dubbed all claims made by Avesi as false and incoherent. Soomro said he never drew any amount from government funds for his office, home, or his meals.

Soomro said since he was also the caretaker Law Minister, he mostly used the Law Minister’s office and would only visit the Human Rights office once a month. Soomro also demanded an inquiry into Avesi’s claims.

The reporter tried to contact the Secretary of the Department Tehsin Fatima on her cell numbers and sent her detailed messages but there was no response.

This scribe awaited her reply for three weeks. This reporter also approached the Chief Secretary Sindh Syed Asif Haider Shah for this issue through his PR section as well as directly but despite waiting for three weeks, to no avail.