Islamabad:
An audit report submitted to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has revealed that Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited (ZTBL) employees caused a loss of RS1.2 billion to the National Treasury through a fraud that involved counterfeiting documents.
Audit officials told a PAC meeting on Tuesday, on Tuesday that it was seen under the presidency of Junaid Akbar, which in several cases, the sanctioned loans for farmers never reached them, since ZTBL employees appropriated these loans.
Appearing before the Committee, the president of ZTBL declared that the Bank dismissed 400 employees found involved in the alteration of loan documents. “We have placed personal contact numbers and awareness boards on each branch. So far we have recovered RS270 million, and recovery efforts are ongoing,” he said.
The Committee asked the President to address the issue in coordination with the Audit Department.
It was also revealed that the ZTBL had not been able to recover RS9 billion in loans with 1,601 borrowers who did not return a single rupee.
Audit officials said that only 16% of the recoverable amounts were collected from the borrowers in Quetta, Karachi and Lahore. They also noticed a growing number of loan morbids throughout the country.
MNA Khawaja Sheraz asked why ZTBL sinks constantly when the banking sector is profitable.
The ZTBL is a state -owned agricultural development bank that provides credit and agricultural banking services to farmers throughout the country. It remains the financial institution of agricultural development of the largest public sector in the country.
The PAC also received a Suo Motu notice at the request of Jamshed Dasti with respect to a loss of 1.1 million liters of gasoline in Pakistan state oil (PSO) due to employee negligence.
PSO’s managing director (MD) told the Committee that the estimated value of lost gasoline is RS180 million. “We recover RS40 million of the employees responsible after saying goodbye,” he said.
