LWMC audit report reveals shady hiring

LAHORE: Massive irregularities in recruitment process for top officials in Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC), who have drawn hefty salaries and allowances amounting to millions of rupees till June 2018, has surfaced in the report of recent forensic audit of the company, The News has learnt.

The PTI government after coming to power in Punjab had ordered forensic audit of the company and Punjab’s auditor general was asked to complete the task. A special team was constituted to complete the operation.

LWMC Chairman Riaz Hameed said the report was approved and went for publication. He said the government will take appropriate action recommended in the audit report. He said the audit team gave LWMC officials two chances of submitting replies to the audit objections and those whose replies were satisfactory were incorporated in the report.

Documents available with The News revealed that General Manager (Operations), General Manager (HR & Admin), General Manager (Planning and Contracts), several senior managers, managers and assistant managers were recruited against prescribed rules, regulations and criteria. Documents further revealed that undue favours were also given to many officers in terms of relaxing/ignoring HR rules at the time of their salary raise.

Documents revealed that General Manager (Operations) Sohail Anwar Malik was appointed as Manager Planning on 28-10-2011. He was Masters in English Literature and Political Science. Documents showed that he did not fulfill the eligibility criteria of holding MSc degree in Environmental Sciences, Economics, Management, Planning, Statistics or similar mentioned in the advertisement for the post. It was further revealed that the post of Manager Planning was not advertised on company’s web portal.

The forensic audit report revealed that Sohail Anwar Malik was re-designated as Manager (Operations) on 21-03-2013 whereas eligibility criteria for the appointment of both categories of managers (Planning and Operations) was quite different. He was then promoted as Senior Manager (Operations).

It is pertinent to mention here that the post of Senior Manager (Operations) was advertised internally and the criteria was minimum 16 years of education in Environmental sciences, engineering. Management and social sciences with minimum 08 years of relevant experience out of which minimum 04 years with LWMC was prescribed.

Documents showed that he was promoted as senior Manager (Operations) on the basis of having masters degree in Political Science which he done on 31 May 2010. His total post qualification experience came to 6 years and 5 months instead of the required experience of 08 years. Out of his total experience, he performed his duties as Manager (Operations) for 3 years and 7 months. It was further revealed that the post of senior Manager (Operations) was internally advertised on 29-09-2016 with minimum 16 years of education in Environmental sciences engineering and management.

To extend favour to Sohail Malik an amendment was made by adding new discipline of Social Sciences in the eligibility criteria and Sohail Anwar Malik was the only candidate to apply for the post of senior Manager (Operations), the report added.

Two increments were given to him at the time of promotion and again in January 2017 he was given three increments whereas his length of service as senior Manager (Operations) was just three months.

Documents showed that on 29-05-2018 Sohail Anwar was given officiating charge for the post of General Manager (Operations) without the approval of BoDs in violation of the rule4.2.2(d) of HR manual. Forensic audit team in its recommendations held that Sohail Anwar Malik was appointed in a non-transparent manner and re-designation of his post can’t be termed as legitimate. Since July 2014 till June 2018 he got Rs 7,894,758 in the head of salary and allowances. Over the appointment of General Manager (Procurement & Contracts) Waqar-ud-Din, forensic audit report revealed that he was appointed on 08-11-2017 despite the fact he didn’t have experience of 15 years as required in the advertisement published on 16 July 2017. Waqar-ud-Din claimed experience of working as Project Engineer with M/s Descon Engineering from 1995 to 1999 whereas experience letter of that period showed he was project coordinator. He also claimed experience of two years as project engineer from 2000 to 2002 but experience letter showed he was project coordinator.

Similarly, he claimed that he remained tem leader (contracts and procurement) in BHP Billiton for the period of 2002-06 but didn’t provide any experience letter in this regard. From 2006-0, he claimed he worked as Business Development Manager but letter of employer showed he was Supply Chain head.

Forensic Audit in its report held that recruitment committee blindly accepted personal information of Waqar-ud-Din without considering veracity and relevancy of the candidate for this important post.

Senior Manager (HR & Admin) Usman Nisar was recruited as Assistant Manager on 12-10-2013 despite the fact he didn’t have 3 years of post qualifications experience as required in the advertisement. He completed his MBA from virtual university on 17-10-2012 Forensic Audit report revealed. The audit findings stated that his appointment and then his promotion as Manager (HR) and then to the post of Sr. Manager (HR) was done by the then senior management in sheer contravention to procedures, policies and codal formalities who gave him six increments on first promotion and seven increments on his promotion as Sr. Manager (HR). Since his appointment till June 201, he had withdrawn Rs 3,606,182 as salary and allowances. Forensic audit observed that since his initial appointment was against the rules, his promotions were illegal and unlawful.

Senior Manager (Operations) Zahid Mushtaq was appointed as Assistant Manager on 22-10-2012 and then he was promoted to Deputy Manager in 2016. In the same year he applied for the post of senior Manager (Operations) in response to an internal advertisement and then he was promoted as Manager (Operations) with a promise of promotion if he meets 90 per cent of his KPIs. Audit report said that it was dual promotion in one calendar year. In 2016, for the post of senior Manager (Operations) he submitted experience of working with Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) as Environmental Protection Officer. On verification through email it was revealed that he provided a fake and forged document but the then MD Bilal Mustafa Syed and HR Manager Usman Nisar didn’t take any action against him. His other experience documents were also fake as till date some are not verified, the report claimed.

The audit report stated that Zahid Mushtaq provided false information with regard to his experience which calls for his outright dismissal from service. He is also liable to be prosecuted for commission of fraud and forgery under the relevant provisions of the PPC as well as anticorruption laws. He got Rs 4,174,565 as salary and allowances during FY 2014 till 2018.

Ms Amina Asif Khan, Manager (Operations), was appointed as Manager (Planning) on 23-05-2013. Her selection and appointment violated all principles of law rules, justice and fair play the forensic audit report said.

“A candidate secured highest marks 42.2 than others but he was not selected. Second candidate who got 38.40 marks was not even called for interview. Ms Amina Asif stood 12th in written by securing 25.6 marks,” the report maintained. It concluded that she was appointed extending undue favour by the then MD and she was allowed to continue work as Manager (Operations) despite the fact her experience letter was proved fabricated. Criminal proceedings were also required to be taken against Ms Amina Asif Khan for fraud and forgery and she is liable to be dismissed outright from the post of Manager (Operations) and action must be initiated against the then HR Manager for ignoring the fraud. She got Rs 4,247,760 as salary and allowances.

Muneeb-ur-Rehman, presently Manager Administration, was appointed as Assistant manager without post and undue favour by assigning soft working hours. Forensic audit declared that he was quite inefficient and lazy person unable to cope with any challenge. The report held the then GM (Operations) responsible for promoting him. It suggested immediate demotion of Muneeb-ur-Rehman. Since his appointment till June 2018, he got Rs 3,653,810 as salary and allowances from the company.

Aiyaz Mazhar, Manager (Operations), was hired without requisite experience and so far he drew inadmissible salary falling outside the range of pay and allowances amounting to Rs 6,405,985. It recommended that he should be relieved of his post and proper action should be taken against HR authorities for contravening rules in his case.

Adeel Pervaiz, senior Manager (Landfill), was appointed on 29-09-2016 as he had worked with former MD Bilal Mustafa Syed in M/s NESPAK. Even before joining LWMC, Adeel represented LWMC at Ministry of Climate Change, Islamabad on 26-09-2016 on the orders of the then MD. Forensic Audit’s found that length of experience was reduced from 10 to 8 years in advertisement only to accommodate him. His work experience at NESPAK was also not found genuine as he worked there on daily wages while his experience at Hussain Cortex is also unverified. It said he got salary and allowances of Rs 3,972,387.

It said Yasir Gul, Manager Transfer Station, who presently is holding additional charge of Metro Bus Project as well as Manager (Operations) also submitted unfavorable experience letter. It said HR department didn’t take any action of this at the time of his joining and from August 2016 till June 2018 he got Rs 2,507,226 as salaries and allowances.

The report also questioned the re-instatement of Manager Communication Jamil Khawar in a non-transparent manner. It said he was terminated on 12-04-2017 due to poor performance but LHC suspended the termination order on his writ petition. Forensic audit team was of the view that no departmental inquiry was ordered against him up till finalisation of this report. Meanwhile during termination period of Jameel Khawar, the company appointed Ali Mazhar as senior Manager Communication. It said retaining two persons is a heavy burden upon the company.

Forensic Audit revealed that Asma Naheed was appointed as Assistant Manager (Finance) without second interview. It claimed that Asma Naheed was involved in extending undue financial favour to contractors at the time of processing monthly invoice. Since her appointment till June 2018 she got Rs 4,651,500 as salary and allowances.

The report also mentioned malpractices in the appointment of Managers and Assistant Managers including Maaz Khalid, Faran Ahmed, Mehran Afzal Ch, Ali Raza, Atif Gillani, Zabreen Hassan, Sumaira Nisar, Imran Azam, Hasan Khalid, Rahat Batool, Saad Talal, Amina Rasool, Usman Waheed, Zarnab Aqiba and Shakeel Wahid Ch.