Ex-food minister rubbishes charges by inquiry committee

LAHORE: Former provincial Food Minister Samiullah Chaudhry has rejected charges levelled by the wheat inquiry committee constituted by the Prime Minister, claiming that its non-technical members overlooked key issues regarding flour controversy.

Unfortunately, the inquiry committee did not have a sector specialist/technical expert of food due to which substantial information has been missed out, according to a fact sheet in which his role in managing affairs of Food Department was highlighted. Responding to an allegation that the Punjab Food Department failed to devise a mechanism to regulate the demand and supply of wheat and to keep track of the government and private wheat stocks that started heading in every direction, he stated that primarily it is the mandate of the Ministry of National Food Security & Research (MNFS&R) for the planning of wheat production and assessment of the market mentioned in report at para 6 on page 2.

Regarding the allegation by inquiry committee that the Punjab government resorted to erratic transfers in Food Department including posting/transfer of four Food Secretaries and of nearly all DFCs, thrice during the year, he claimed that he repeatedly directed secretaries for posting of relevant DDs and DFCs and emphasized that suitable, honest, and hardworking officers shall be posted on merits with good reputation but no action was taken by the authorities. Copies of the correspondences were also dispatched to the Chief Secretary and the Principal Sectary.

The minister has also directed a number of times to take on board for posting/transfers or at least to dispatch letters for information but the orders were never implemented. Moreover, at the time of wheat procurement the minister discouraged the dual charges and had written many reminders but all went in vain. The ex-minister revealed that not even a single food secretary was transferred/posted with his consideration. Erratic posting and chronic issues like postings of officials like Salman Ali, Deputy Director Food Rawalpindi, caused serious issues. In spite of writing many letters by the minister in early 2019 to remove such elements immediately no action took place. However, many such officials were removed including Salman Ali after publishing of the inquiry report.

To counter the accusation that the Punjab Food Department did not put in place any reforms to rectify the situation, he made it clear that as per the Punjab Business rules 2011, the responsibility lies with the secretary food. However, the minister had been able to take several initiatives including IT interventions of incorporating dashboard for ensuring the reliability of data, setting up of online compliant cell. The cell successfully redressed 2976 complaints. Live monitoring of whole system was done. Toll free number with recorded transactions coupled with setting up control room with enhanced surveillance through CCTV cameras were launched.

Development & implementation of Wheat Procurement Policy 2019-20 in letter and spirit with the salient features of three tier supervision and monitoring, facilitation of farmers, new intervention for Bardana, control room, ban on transfer/posting in the procurement period, image building/advertisement campaign, revamping registration of chakkis started with the pilot phase in Lahore, Multan and Faisalabad. The same has been acknowledged in para 40 of the report.

Samiullah Chaudhry claimed that he issued order for conducting forensic audits of Ramazan and Sasti roti packages and soaring prices of wheat. The department was timely directed to ensure the availability of flour on fixed government rate to facilitate the general public at the start of the pandemic.