NAB raids on godowns of wheat continue

SUKKUR: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Sukkur conducted raids at 15 government godowns in Kashmore for the second day on Sunday.
The NAB teams conducted raids at different food department centres and took record in its custody. The NAB teams raided the food department’s wheat purchase centres and warehouses in Kashmore and Kandhkot. The accountability bureau officials inspected the wheat stock and found hundreds of bags missing, according to NAB sources.
Director General NAB Sukkur has ordered action against the government officers allegedly involved in misappropriation of unaccounted wheat stocks. Around 60,000 bags of 100kg wheat were found missing from the food department’s centres, NAB sources said.
The value of untraced wheat bags is around Rs250 million, according to accountability bureau sources.
The NAB Sindh chapter had earlier recovered more than Rs10 billion in wheat scandal under the inquiries opened against the provincial food department for the theft of wheat worth more than Rs15 billion.
A report released by NAB showed that nine inquiries were opened against Sindh Food Department in Sukkur as wheat worth more than Rs15 billion had been stolen in nine districts. The flour mill owners plea-bargained Rs2.112 billion during the NAB investigation, the report said.
It emerged that wheat worth Rs745.680 million had been sent to Karachi from nine districts of Sindh while the stocks vanished during its transportation. The anti-corruption watchdog received money worth Rs8.126 billion for the wheat acquired on 180-day credit.
The complaints of wheat theft were filed from Sukkur, Larkana and other districts of Sindh. The investigation exposed Rs 5.355 billion irregularity in terms of wheat stocks from the government go-downs which gave financial dent to the national exchequer up to Rs 10.612 billion. – TLTP