Documentary evidence of mega-corruption in the College Education Department stirs up

Karachi: FIA has written a letter to the Sindh government to investigate the alleged mega corruption in the college education department.

In the Department of College Education Sindh, three years of mega-corruption in the fields of biometrics, teacher training, sports and extra-curricular activities funds, furniture and fixtures and digital libraries have started to come out in document form, which has caused a stir in the department. .

After this story came out with the alleged evidence of mega corruption, the pressure is also increasing on the part of College Education Department, S&GDA and Anti-Corruption Department for investigation in this regard.

Now this matter has gone beyond the boundaries of College Education Department and has reached to FIA and Anti-Corruption and FIA has also written a letter to Sindh Government for investigation in this regard, in which it is recommended to Sindh Government to investigate this matter. .

Meanwhile, in order to avoid frequent investigations, the Department of College Education Sindh has started artificial investigations on the alleged irregularities and violations of rules in the purchase of only one of these various items, “Biometric Machines”.

Apparently, this matter has been disclosed by the central leader of Sindh Professor and Lecturer Association, Prof. Shah Jahan Paiwar, with heavy files of evidence, while a former principal of the Government Degree Boys College of Ghotki district of Sindh has complained to the department several times before and after his retirement. There were complaints in which certain officers and employees posted in the Directorate General Colleges Sindh and Secretariat have been accused, out of which one officer has been investigated.

The documents and evidence received by “Express” in this regard indicate that under a notification dated December 13, 2023 by the Secretary College Education Sindh Sadaf Sheikh, a remote inquiry committee consisting of Director General Colleges Sindh Saleh Abbas and Additional Secretary Muhammad Juman Thibu has been established, which apparently belongs to Sindh. Probing alleged irregularities in procurement of biometric machine in government colleges.

The committee will examine the allegations leveled by the former and present principals of the Government Degree Boys College, Deharki District, Ghotki, and examine how the super-rules were violated in procurement of biometric machines in government colleges. are

It should be noted that this and related stories cover the annual budget of the last three years or two fiscal years and this budget of crores of rupees was released to the Directorate General Colleges Sindh in different terms.

In these stories, the story of biometrics begins with a principal professor of district Ghotki, Abdullah Hafeez Bhutto, who claimed that Rashid Khoso, assistant director and section officer of the college education department for the year 2020, issued an instruction through telephone in March 2022 that the purchase of biometric machine. Deposit 70 thousand rupees to the respective account number of a private bank in Karachi.

The said ex-principal claimed that since I could not release this amount from the college account in any case, as per the instructions, I compulsorily deposited the amount from my personal salary after which the biometric machine was installed in April.

Professor Abdullah Bhutto in his complaint to the department said that Rashid Khosso inquired many times about which account to release the last amount, but he did not give any reply in this regard.

It should be noted that by the year 2022 and early 2023, this trend spread in all the government colleges of Sindh including Karachi, while biometric machines had already been installed in most of the colleges on the court order, despite this, there was allegedly pressure on the principals to forget about the old machines.

Not only this, but no funds were provided to the college principals in this regard, they were told to purchase the machine from a specific vendor “Powersolution Private Limited” (a company apparently operating from Model Colony, Karachi).

In this regard, several principals and Professor Shah Jahan Paiwar have alleged that this machine was worth 25 to 27 thousand rupees in the market at that time, but the said vendor was selling it for 70 thousand rupees without any warranty and there was pressure on the principal of each college to buy the machine from another place other than this vendor. Cannot be purchased.

Sources say that this particular vendor has benefited Rs 2.45 lakh from the purchase of these machines in a total of 343 government colleges in Sindh, which the affected principal has also mentioned in his letter.

In this regard, separate rules and procurement manuals were openly violated and no tender was issued regularly.

When “Express” got information about the machine in this regard, it came to light that the machine of the model provided to the colleges is not available in the market.

“Express” got the pictures of the machines in the colleges of different districts of Karachi, then in the college there was a machine of the same model as the one mentioned in the education department. 30 thousand was a little more than that.

When “Express” inquired about this from the then Assistant and now Deputy Secretary Rashid Khoso, Towan said that there was an inquiry against him in the past in which he was cleared by the department, when he was asked to share the letter. The letter which was shared after several days of delay, there was no mention of the said inquiry anywhere, but apparently he was cleared in another inquiry related to him in the past.

Inquiring Pran said that it was not mentioned in the letter but the biometric work was also included in this inquiry. One question Pran said that now there is no further inquiry against him nor has he appeared anywhere in this regard, while the complainant Professor Shah Jahan Pahoor claimed that when he The Inquiry Committee recently called to record the statement and in the meantime the concerned Deputy Secretary was also called.

On the other hand, Rashid Khoso further said that when Shah Jahan Pahoor has filed a case in the court regarding my posting, then why are they making complaints against me everywhere.

On the other hand, a college principal in Karachi, on the condition of anonymity, told “Express” that the committee working under the chairmanship of Director General Colleges Sindh has come up with many surprising facts, firstly, that there is an invisible force which Almost all the principals of the colleges bought the expensive machine from the same vendor market.

He further said that in addition to this, the data of this mission is running on the “server” of a private company, while till now, despite the search, no contract document of any kind has been found from this company, from which it can be known that this company is Koken. Data is being given on conditions, how much money this company is taking from the department or why for free and how this data of the department is going to a private company.

On this issue, “Express” met DG Colleges Prof. Saleh Abbas in his office and inquired about the inquiry, to which he confirmed only an inquiry but excused himself from saying anything and confirmed the allegations in this regard. Didn’t deny it. He said that he will hand over the report to the Secretary Education.

Apart from this, there is currently no investigation by the department on the stories containing other allegations of alleged corruption related to the college education department in 2022 and 2023.

In these allegations, it has been said that a budget of 9 crore rupees was released by the Sindh government for the purchase of scientific equipment for co-curricular activities and sports and laboratories in the colleges, but the funds in this regard had to be released to the principals of the respective colleges on the basis of bills made by specific vendors. It is also required that the funds released in this regard should be verified by the organization of extra-curricular and sports activities in the colleges because in this regard, no presribed performance has been released for the release of funds related to the organization of sports and extra-curricular activities.

Regarding the same allegations, there is also a claim that 67 million rupees was released in the name of fundother heads for setting up digital libraries in colleges, in which the super rules were also violated and how the DDOs of the college estimated the purchase of related machines or equipment.

Similarly, sub-standard furniture was provided to the colleges which was inadequate and the procurement did not include the representative of the Industry Department who checks the quality of the furniture. Moreover, teacher training was apparently conducted throughout Sindh for which a budget of Rs. Apart from this, 62 lakh rupees were released for petrol, 15 lakh rupees for TADA and 20 lakh rupees for conducting workshops.

However, in the name of training, the college teachers were given mere lectures, the trainers did not even have any kind of training manual to test the competences of the teachers and the government budget was spent in the name of training, but since the training was an artificial stage, nothing could be achieved. .

Meanwhile, some allegations regarding transfer/posting in colleges have also been leveled against PA Imtiaz Pathan of Secretary College Education for which the regular FIA has also issued a letter on 14th December 2023.

“Express” tried to contact Imtiaz Pathan several times in this regard, he only answered the phone once and after listening to the allegations, he said that he is currently busy and will call back to discuss the matter, after which he answered the phone without answering the phone. He was also sent messages on SMS and WhatsApp, but he did not respond to these allegations.

Apart from this, an attempt was made to contact Sadaf Sheikh, the current secretary of education appointed in the caretaker government, and ask why he is not conducting an inquiry on other allegations, but he did not give a stand in this regard either.