NJHPP CFO receives 6m funds: Body seeks answer

Abdullah Malik

ISLAMABAD: The inquiry committee recently formed to detect the fuel scam of 20 million rupees in Neelum Jhelum Hydro Power Project (NJHPP) exposed by The Frontier Post found that the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the project Hamid Mahmood got 6 million rupees in fuel category in three years for their personal vehicle the inquiry committee documents available with The Frontier Post added.

The inquiry committee found that CFO of the project from Sept-2016 to August 2019 received 6 million rupees from project funds using 43,596 liters fuels for their personal vehicle. The inquiry committee further detected that the said officer installed 3 engines in their personal car and got 3.6 million rupees from the funds additionally. 

Inquiry committee documented that the company’s CFO received funds for 11183 liters of fuel from September 2016 to August 2017, which is approximately 30 liters per day. Documents say CFO received funds of 5475 liters fuel in five months of the year mentioned above. 

The inquiry committee documents further added that the company’s CFO has received 15,984 liters of fuel from September 2017 to August 2018, which is 43.79 liters per day. The document revealed that in the month of January, the official received funds of using 1622 liters fuel in their personal vehicle which approximately ratio of per day is 50.68 liters. Further information added that in the month of June the official received funds for 1505 liters fuel which daily ratio is 50.16 liters.

The inquiry committee further added that the project CFO from September 2018 to August 2019 got highest funds in category of fuel allowance for using 16,429 liters fuel in the above mentioned tenure which approximately ratio is 45 liters per day. The documents mentioned that official got highest funds in fuel category in the month of November and December. The said officer got highest funds in month of December for using 1782 liter fuels which approximately ratio per day is 57.48 liters as well in month of November  the mentioned official used 1673 liters fuel which approximately ratio per/day is 57.68 liters.

The inquiry committee further questioned the 3.6 million rupees received by the official in category of changing the engine of their personal car three times and the inquiry committee mentioned that official received 1.2 million rupees per/year in engine category.

A high official of the Ministry of Water Resources told Frontier Post that the ministry received same documents from the inquiry committee which are detecting the scam of fuel in the billion worth project. He added that after reviewing the documents and consultation with the other high-ups of the ministry the case will be forwarded to anti-grafting agencies for further investigations.

A member of the inquiry committee who is familiar with whole process told this scribe that after in-depth investigation the inquiry committee detected that the total scam of fuel corruption is round about twenty million rupees in the project. He added that the inquiry committee also included the 6 million funds received by the project CFO Hamid Mahmood in three years. He added that official is using official accommodation in AJ&K Muzaffar Abad city but still they got huge funds in fuel category which harms the national exchequer. He added that we have concluded our inquiry and now the responsibility shouldered on the relevant authority to take action on this.

The Frontier Post forwarded questionnaire to the NJHPP CFO Hamid Mahmood one week ago and made various calls for his version but he didn’t respond and blocked the scribe on phone.