Islamabad:
An audit report presented to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) revealed that the employees of Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited (ZTBL) caused a loss of 1.2 billion rupees to the national treasury by fraud involving forged documents.
Audit officials said a CAP meeting on Tuesday – under the presidency of Junaid Akbar on Tuesday – that in several cases, the loans sanctioned for farmers have never reached them while ZTBL employees diverted these loans.
Presenting before the committee, the president of the ZTBL said that the bank had rejected 400 employees found involved in the modification of the loan documents. “We have placed personal contact numbers and awareness advice in each branch. We have hitherto recovered RS270 million, and restoration efforts are underway,” he said.
The committee asked the president to resolve the question in coordination with the audit service.
It was also revealed that the ZTBL had not managed to recover RS9 billion loans, 1,601 borrowers not even returning a single roupire.
Audit officials said only 16% of the recoverable amounts were collected from borrowers in Quetta, Karachi and Lahore. They also noted an increasing number of loan failing ones across the country.
Mna Khawaja Sheraz asked why the ZTBL is constantly sinking when the banking sector is profitable.
The ZTBL is an agricultural development bank belonging to the State which provides agricultural credits and banking services to farmers across the country. It remains the greatest financial institution for agricultural development in the country’s public sector.
The CAP has also taken an opinion on Suo Motu on the request of Jamshed Dasti concerning a loss of 1.1 million liters of petrol in Pakistan State Oil (PSO) due to the negligence of employees.
The Director General of the PSO (MD) told the Committee that the estimated value of lost gasoline was RS180 million. “We have recovered 40 million rupees from responsible employees after rejected them,” he said.
