By Khalid Mustafa
ISLAMABAD: The government has sprung into action and initiated a probe into the creation of media cell in the Ministry of Water and Power that is siphoning off Rs12 million per year just on huge salaries, perks and privileges and the questionable activities of various officials of Pepco, and Power Holding Company (PHC) under the garb of image building and running various campaigns in leading newspapers and channels, The News has learnt.
According to one estimate, the racket of officials is involved in swindling over Rs1 billion out of Rs3.2 billion spent on various campaigns to combat the power sector challenges. This means that the creation of the media cell scam has turned into over Rs32 billion.
The sources confided to The News that the top man of the Ministry of Water and Power took a stern note of the news published in the Jang and The News with headlines that Media Cell is spending Rs12 million per annum and convened an immediate meeting that took the minuted decision under which it was observed that it is sheer injustice to Nespak (National Engineering Services of Pakistan) which is providing funds to the cell on the directives of the former secretary of water and power despite the fact that NesPak is purely a technical public sector entity that needs no image building drive.
When contacted, Ahsan Akhter Malik Additional Secretary admitted that a meeting recently held in the Ministry of Water and Power took notice of the creation of media cell on the funding of NesPak on the directive of the former secretary of water and Power Shaid Rafi and termed it is not justified.
However, he showed his inability about further action the ministry was going to take to unearth the racket of the officials involved in the huge scam of minting taxpayers’ money.
Meanwhile, Federal Minister for Water and Power Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, when contacted, told The News that he has also taken notice of the creation of the media cell at the cost of NesPakÂ’s hard earned money and asked the secretary water and power to initiate a ruthless probe into the creation of media cell, its output and its huge spending of billion of rupees in various initiatives.
The sources while quoting the incumbent secretary of Water and Power Mr Javed Iqbal told that the huge amount of Rs1.8 billion was budgeted for various advertisements and a racket of officials has spent over Rs1 billion. They said that the secretary has also ordered to initiate the audit of the spending and fix the responsibility whosoever is involved in the huge scam.
The sources said that if any channel runs any advertisement, say for 2 minutes for 6 times in a day, but the authorities concerned signed the advertisement of 3 to 4 minutes for 12 times in a day and got issued the huge amount but gave to channels as per 2 minutes ads run for 6 times. This is how the huge money was swindled. The source s claimed that a well know advertisement company is also involved in this ugly practice.
This is not fair to name the persons involved in this scam as once the probe is completed, then their names will be made public and treated accordingly.
However, the official sources told that incumbent secretary of Water and Power got alarmed and he was shocked to know that right under his nose the unscrupulous officials were making huge money in the garb of media cell and the prestigious organization of the country NesPak was sharing the huge burden of Rs12 million to ensure the huge salaries of Media Professionals of information Ministry.
The incumbent secretary, according to the sources, has said that it is quite shocking that how some officials of information ministry managed to persuade the secretary to create the media cell for promotion of the image of public sector power sector entities when almost every entity has already its office in place to deal with media.
The secretary has also been quoted as saying that if there is indeed a genuine need of the media cell, then the authorities concerned should have hired media managers from the open market, but it looks odd as in the existing media cell, the government officials in information ministry, who have failed to defend the government, have managed to get themselves posted in the media cell to ensure the huge packages, but failed to deliver also.
Source: The News
Date:2/11/2011