PESHAWAR: The inquiry report has confirmed the hiring scandal in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Finance Department. According to the report, 88 out of 102 appointments have been declared illegal and in violation of the prescribed rules.
The scandal of illegal recruitments in the Finance Department had come to the surface, following which Adviser to Finance Muzammil Aslam ordered an inquiry. According to the inquiry report, these illegal appointments were made under three cost centres of the Finance Department: PR4041, PR8042, and PR8657. The report states that only 14 employees were recruited through proper and lawful procedures, whilst the remaining 88 appointments were illegal.
The inquiry has fixed responsibility on several officers of the Finance Department. Allegedly, Section Officers Abdul Rashid, Farooq Ali, and Ghani ur Rehman have been held responsible for the wrongful and illegal appointments. It further reveals that the then Deputy Secretary PFC, Hazrat Jamal, allegedly illegally chaired a Departmental Selection Committee meeting on March 23, 2023, and, along with Muhammad Ashraf Khan, Superintendent Admin of the Administration Department, made unauthorised appointments of 20 employees.
Based on these findings, the inquiry committee recommended disciplinary action against the named officers under the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Efficiency and Discipline Rules 2011. It has also recommended that officials of the Admin Section of the Finance Department, including Assistant Abdul Akbar, Senior Clerk Muhammad Amir, Assistant Haibat Rizwan, and Assistant Iftikhar Ahmed, be included in a formal inquiry.
The report also recommended that the salaries of the 88 illegally recruited employees be immediately stopped until the completion of a formal inquiry. It has further recommended a special audit of all records through the Administration Department, a review of sanctioned posts and actual postings, and the preparation of a mandatory checklist for Departmental Selection Committee meetings.
The inquiry has also recommended that the Accountant General’s Office examine the role of officials who initiated salary payments without completing legal formalities and initiate disciplinary action where required.
In this regard, some officers allegedly involved in the scandal, whilst talking to this correspondent, rejected the allegations as baseless. They said they are being made scapegoats. Senior officers involved in the scandal are being protected whilst the burden is being placed on junior officers. They said they would defend their case at every forum.
