Dawn
ISLAMABAD
June 25, 2009
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has submitted to the Justice Bhagwandas Commission a report on the wrongdoings it says have been committed by the government functionaries and oil industry people in the pricing of petroleum products causing a loss of Rs83 billion to the nation over a period of five years.
The Supreme Court constituted a few months ago the high-level commission led by former SC judge Justice Rana Bhagwandas to hold a probe into the fixing of oil prices and to suggest measures to plug loopholes in the pricing mechanism to ensure fair prices of petroleum products to consumers.
The apex court had taken serious notice of the petroleum ministry’s non-cooperation and instructed the government to provide all information to the commission so that it might reach a judgment.
The NAB report that covered petroleum pricing mechanism between June 2001 and June 2006 was originally submitted to the then president Gen Pervez Musharraf and prime minister Shaukat Aziz on June 13, 2006 by the then NAB chairman Lt-Gen (retd) Shahid Aziz.
The report was never made public but the NAB chairman was removed unceremoniously shortly after it was submitted to the presidency and the prime minister.
The NAB report has now been provided to the Justice Bhagwandas Commission which is expected to submit its final report to the apex court by June 30.
According to a former deputy chairman of NAB, Maj-Gen Muhammad Siddique, senior management of “Pakistan State Oil Company Limited (PSO) and others are involved in massive misappropriation/misuse of authority and forgery in the import of HSD (high speed diesel) and its subsequent sale in the country and … committed the offence of corruption and corrupt practices” as defined in relevant laws.
The report prepared by a three-member investigation team and exclusively available with Dawn concluded that “it is sufficiently evident that (functionaries in the) ministry of petroleum in collusion with the Oil Companies Advisory Committee (OCAC), oil industry and Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) have engaged themselves in corrupt practices for generating colossal undue financial gains for refineries and OMCs at the cost of public and economy as a whole”.
It said the federal cabinet in June 2001 entrusted the role of oil price fixation to OCAC under monitoring by the director-general of oil but none of the directors-general performed the task of monitoring and some of them even expressed ignorance about the cabinet decision. The entire price fixation by OCAC “remained non-transparent/dubious and the DG Oil/Ministry did not play any role, violating the cabinet decision”.
As a result of faulty policies, the profits of Shell Pakistan, Caltex and PSO increased by 232 per cent, 281 per cent and 252 per cent between 2001 and 2004-05. Likewise, the profits of Attock Refinery, National Refinery, Pak Refinery and Parco jumped by 4331 per cent, 3578 per cent, 1717 per cent and 597 per cent, respectively, between 2001-02 and 2004-05.
The report said that a loss of over Rs11 billion was caused to the exchequer because of a redundant oil pricing formula for petrol (motor spirit) while another Rs34 billion loss was caused due to wrongful addition of premiums on the import parity prices of petrol and high speed diesel between July 2001 and April 2006.
Likewise, the report pointed out that the petroleum ministry failed to cap the distribution margins of the OMCs and dealers when the petroleum prices touched the roof and provided a benefit of Rs9 billion to the OMCs and dealers between December 2004 and May 2006.
“The ministry despite having assured the ECC in the summary of capping the margins, failed to cap OMCs’/dealers’ margins resulting in their exorbitant profit margins,” the report said.
It calculated a financial impact of more than Rs18 billion that was `erroneously’ earned by the oil marketing companies and dealers in five years because the OCAC charged commissions even on government taxes, particularly on 15 per cent GST, that was clearly in violation of laws.
The report said that a loss of another Rs6 billion was caused to the government by “illegal removal of 40 per cent upper cap of profits” to the refineries, making a total loss of Rs82.90 billion.
It said under the federal cabinet decision, the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) was established in March 2002, requiring the government to immediately transfer monitoring and regulatory function of petroleum prices to Ogra. However, the transfer of regulatory role to Ogra “was delayed by the ministry for more than four years. The gas regulation and licensing function were transferred to Ogra, but POL pricing was withheld for four years”.
Similarly, “the deemed duty in the guise of tariff protection was allowed to refineries without seeking specific legal approval/issuance of SRO”. —By special arrangement
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As part of global fight against corruption and power abuse this Blog is dedicated to transparency in public and private governance including executive, judicial, and legislative branches of government and political, media, civil society, and faith based organizations in Pakistan. Please feel free to report any incident of corruption and/or abuse of power to be published in this blog. Each person remains accountable for the content of his or her posting.
The Editor
Monday, June 29, 2009
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Streamlining Pakistani Police Force
Aslam Pervaiz Abro
Shikarpur, Sindh
June 28, 2009
Just a day before the arrival of dreaded long march spearheaded by Nawaz Sharif, the Federal Government issued a notification on 15 March 2009 to raise the salaries of Islamabad police, giving them lucrative incentives and other perks. On 16 April Chief Minister of the Punjab also made a similar announcement to increase the salaries of the Punjab Police. The domino effect of these commendable announcements pervaded to rest of the provinces with NWFP CM announcing to double the salaries of provincial police. The Prime Minister in his recent visit to Karachi also declared that salaries of Sindh police would be equalized to that of Punjab Police.
This has brought about instantaneous jubilations and exuberance among police officials since their long awaited demand-cum-desire has been/would be fulfilled. It is axiomatic that salary of police is incommensurate to the services they render risking their lives to secure the safety of public. Ask a policeman patrolling the highway at midnight whether it is raining or freezing cold, you will learn how tough his job is. The fundamental objectives of increase in the wages of police are to boost their morale, minimize the chances of corruption, and ensure their commitment to the profession to yield maximum output. Now the question arises: will the sole supplement in remunerations and perks achieve these goals? Though it is a step towards the right direction, still a lot needs to be done to streamline the functioning of police force.
It is unfortunate that that our police are one of the world’s most corrupt civilian forces. Chiefly due to corruption and malpractice, the police do not have a decent image in the eyes of a common man. The victim either requires to grease the palms of SHO or apply the influence of a politician just to lodge a FIR. Corruption and politics are institutionalized in the department, devouring it like termite. From District Police Officer to SHO/PP incharge, the postings are politically motivated. The SHO has to make corruption not only for himself but also to supply the booty to his seniors. Some times a DPO claims to be honest and does not accept corruption money from his SHO, but he targets government funds and budget which he shows to have consumed on paper with practical nothingness. Where a policeman is accustomed to hundreds thousands of rupees of corruption money, can a mere increase of few thousands in his legitimate wages wean him away from extortion? It is not likely to uproot his propensity to corruption.
The kind of training imparted to the police officials is a practical joke. Still the firearm training is given with old and outdated rifles. Majority of the police training centres where officials from the rank of constable to inspector are trained, exist since the colonial period with same infrastructure, equipments and training methodology with subsequent minuscule changes. There have been several incidents where the criminals outplayed the trained policeman, i.e. attack on Sri Lankan cricketers expose police’s professionalism when they were being killed like ducks by the terrorists. Discipline in the police force is too lax, almost extinct.
Intelligence aspect of policing remains pathetically neglected. There is apathy among the police officials to get posted to District Information Branch since it is not a lucrative place to work in. Those who are posted there by order seldom remain on duty; hence it is out of question to keep a watch on the movement and activities of suspected persons.
Having raised their pay it is now imperative that there should be strict check & balance, proper auditing of police funds, and most importantly separation of politics from the department and posting of the DIGs, DPOs & SHOs on merit. As long as corruption and politics are there, it is fruitless to expect police to work well. A serious attention should also be given to training of policeman. These days the terrorist and criminals possesses such lethal and sophisticated weapons that our policemen may not have even seen. The training centres should be upgraded. Apart from basic training and promotion course, the department should organize training workshops and courses to enhance the professionalism of police officials.
Information and intelligence aspect of policing should be accorded due importance. The information collected from different sources should be carefully analyzed and given to operation wing to forestall the crime. The entire police department is in disarray and needs overhauling to put it on right track, but raising of salaries is indubitably a move to right direction.
________________________________________________________________
As part of global fight against corruption and power abuse this Blog is dedicated to transparency in public and private governance including executive, judicial, and legislative branches of government and political, media, civil society, and faith based organizations in Pakistan. Please feel free to report any incident of corruption and/or abuse of power to be published in this blog. Each person remains accountable for the content of his or her posting.
The Editor
Shikarpur, Sindh
June 28, 2009
Just a day before the arrival of dreaded long march spearheaded by Nawaz Sharif, the Federal Government issued a notification on 15 March 2009 to raise the salaries of Islamabad police, giving them lucrative incentives and other perks. On 16 April Chief Minister of the Punjab also made a similar announcement to increase the salaries of the Punjab Police. The domino effect of these commendable announcements pervaded to rest of the provinces with NWFP CM announcing to double the salaries of provincial police. The Prime Minister in his recent visit to Karachi also declared that salaries of Sindh police would be equalized to that of Punjab Police.
This has brought about instantaneous jubilations and exuberance among police officials since their long awaited demand-cum-desire has been/would be fulfilled. It is axiomatic that salary of police is incommensurate to the services they render risking their lives to secure the safety of public. Ask a policeman patrolling the highway at midnight whether it is raining or freezing cold, you will learn how tough his job is. The fundamental objectives of increase in the wages of police are to boost their morale, minimize the chances of corruption, and ensure their commitment to the profession to yield maximum output. Now the question arises: will the sole supplement in remunerations and perks achieve these goals? Though it is a step towards the right direction, still a lot needs to be done to streamline the functioning of police force.
It is unfortunate that that our police are one of the world’s most corrupt civilian forces. Chiefly due to corruption and malpractice, the police do not have a decent image in the eyes of a common man. The victim either requires to grease the palms of SHO or apply the influence of a politician just to lodge a FIR. Corruption and politics are institutionalized in the department, devouring it like termite. From District Police Officer to SHO/PP incharge, the postings are politically motivated. The SHO has to make corruption not only for himself but also to supply the booty to his seniors. Some times a DPO claims to be honest and does not accept corruption money from his SHO, but he targets government funds and budget which he shows to have consumed on paper with practical nothingness. Where a policeman is accustomed to hundreds thousands of rupees of corruption money, can a mere increase of few thousands in his legitimate wages wean him away from extortion? It is not likely to uproot his propensity to corruption.
The kind of training imparted to the police officials is a practical joke. Still the firearm training is given with old and outdated rifles. Majority of the police training centres where officials from the rank of constable to inspector are trained, exist since the colonial period with same infrastructure, equipments and training methodology with subsequent minuscule changes. There have been several incidents where the criminals outplayed the trained policeman, i.e. attack on Sri Lankan cricketers expose police’s professionalism when they were being killed like ducks by the terrorists. Discipline in the police force is too lax, almost extinct.
Intelligence aspect of policing remains pathetically neglected. There is apathy among the police officials to get posted to District Information Branch since it is not a lucrative place to work in. Those who are posted there by order seldom remain on duty; hence it is out of question to keep a watch on the movement and activities of suspected persons.
Having raised their pay it is now imperative that there should be strict check & balance, proper auditing of police funds, and most importantly separation of politics from the department and posting of the DIGs, DPOs & SHOs on merit. As long as corruption and politics are there, it is fruitless to expect police to work well. A serious attention should also be given to training of policeman. These days the terrorist and criminals possesses such lethal and sophisticated weapons that our policemen may not have even seen. The training centres should be upgraded. Apart from basic training and promotion course, the department should organize training workshops and courses to enhance the professionalism of police officials.
Information and intelligence aspect of policing should be accorded due importance. The information collected from different sources should be carefully analyzed and given to operation wing to forestall the crime. The entire police department is in disarray and needs overhauling to put it on right track, but raising of salaries is indubitably a move to right direction.
________________________________________________________________
As part of global fight against corruption and power abuse this Blog is dedicated to transparency in public and private governance including executive, judicial, and legislative branches of government and political, media, civil society, and faith based organizations in Pakistan. Please feel free to report any incident of corruption and/or abuse of power to be published in this blog. Each person remains accountable for the content of his or her posting.
The Editor
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