Mega corruption found in Sindh Education Dept

KARACHI: Provincial anti-corruption watchdog has found ‘corruption and misuse of authority in Sindh Education Department district Jacobabad’ involving illegal inducting of hundreds of fake teachers, getting illegal financial benefits in the name of fake employees’ retirement, pension and death claims from department and life insurance company and others.

Sindh Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) registered 13 cases against officials of Sindh Education and Finance departments and their alleged facilitators including District Education Officers, Taluka Education Officers.

Investigation of corruption was initiated when Director Anti-Corruption Establishment Fayyaz Abbasi took notice of corruption in Education Department district Jacobabad and appointed Assistant Director of ACE Masroor Jatoi as special investigator.

Official records suggested that officials of Education and Finance Departments Jacobabad caused a loss of millions of rupees to exchequer. According to the official documentary evidences available with ‘The News’, investigation of Sindh Anti-Corruption also revealed the fake employment of wives and family members of many politicians and government officers in the Department as teachers to draw government salaries to use it for their pocket money without doing jobs.

These lady teachers kept on pocketing millions of rupees for many years without attending their duties Education Department authorities did not take action against them due to their influence.

According to the official record of Sindh Anti-Corruption accessed by The News, one primary teacher Muhammad Bux absconded after lodging of murder case against him. Education Department officers by showing him dead in government record withdrew his pension, and all other benefits of Rs22 lac and Rs6 lac from State Life of Pakistan fraudulently as death claim. ACE lodged First Information Report (FIR) 13/ 2017 of the said crime.

In another matter, PST Imdad Ali Talani expired and his wife Bakhtawar got all his benefits in 2007 and then in 2017 another fresh case of his retirement was prepared by showing his two dummy wives Hajran and Fatima. All benefits were given to them after getting fifty percent bribe from them in this case. In addition a death claim of Rs6 lac was also obtained from State Life Pakistan. FIR 17/2019 was lodged against Abdul Shakoor Banglani, then District Education Officer (DEO) and Taluka Education Officer (TEO) Gul Hassan Unar for this alleged crime. Further investigation is underway against officials of two private banks in the same crime.

An account of Noor Muhammad Khoso, an alleged fake employee (teacher) of Sindh Education Department, was found in which investigators initially found the transaction of Rs17.6 million, which was made by Sindh Education Department’s many officers, contractors and agents.

According to the official record, Khoso was illegally inducted in Sindh Education Department as Primary School Teacher. After completing 16 years of his fake employment, he got retirement illegally from Education Department and received financial benefits of Rs1.6 million with the collaboration of Sindh Education and Finance Departments and a private bank officials.

Investigation Officer Jatoi told The News that only proper investigation of this account could lead to many frauds. In the same investigation carried out by Jatoi, two officials of Sindh Education Department of district Jacobabad – a school teacher and a peon – are alive while they were earlier declared dead only to get their financial benefits of millions of rupees.

Officers of the Sindh Education with the collaboration of Sindh Finance Department officers embezzled Rs4.9 million of pension by showing both Junior School Teacher (JST) Atta Muhammad and peon Abdul Hafeez Banglani as dead. One month after this fraud, JST Atta Muhammad and Hafeez Banglani showed up as alive and their salaries started and their employment got re-continued.

Jatoi told The News that corruption of millions of rupees was detected and illegal role and misuse of authority of officers of Education and Finance Departments was found. He said after completing all procedures and investigation, 13 corruption cases were registered. Jatoi said investigation still continues.