A senior officer of the Directorate General of Hajj in Jeddah was dismissed from service on embezzlement of Rs. 44.646 million, however, he successfully fled to a western country before the start of departmental action against him, sources informed ProPakistani.
Sources told ProPakistani that Muhammad Kaleem was posted as Account Officer (AAO) in the Directorate General of Hajj in Jeddah from 19th Oct 2018 to 25th Oct 2021. He belonged to the Pakistan Railway Services Group but he got a foreign posting in the Directorate General of Hajj in Jeddah for three years.
After the completion of his tenure, Director General Hajj Jeddah smelled embezzlement and reported that Kaleem was involved in the misappropriation of Rs. 12 million on 28th January 2022.
Consequently, the Ministry of Religious Affairs which supervises the Hajj Directorate has decided to conduct a special forensic audit of his tenure. The ministry had asked the Auditor General of Pakistan for conducting a special/forensic audit of the complete three years of tenure in this regard.
An Audit Team of the Directorate of Audit (Foreign and International) conducted a special/forensic audit of the Director General Hajj, Jeddah during June and July of the current year. According to the forensic report, the Director of Audit has issued an Audit and Inspection Report comprising 47 Audit Paras of the Directorate General of Hajj Jeddah for the period of three years.
The Audit and Inspection Report revealed that Muhammad Kaleem who was posed as AAO committed embezzlements of Rs. 44.646 million during the said period.
According to the forensic report, the accused officer Muhammad Kaleem has transferred Rs.12 million to his personal account which was received in Aug 2021 through remittance. The report shows that another misappropriation of Rs. 21.141 million was committed on account of Food Charges deducted from the Daily Allowance of Khuddam whose services were hired by the government of Pakistan.
The forensic report also dugout the embezzlement of Rs. 7.82 million which was done by a caterer Al-Matbakh Al-Noor on account of fewer meals served and penalty.
The embezzlement of Rs. 3.465 million was also committed in the amount which was received as a refund from Madina Accommodation Group in March 2019 and the embezzlement of Rs. 0.22 million was also unearthed on account of bank charges.
The forensic report further mentioned that the Secretary Ministry of Railways was requested to initiate disciplinary action against Kaleem. Accordingly, Kaleem has been dismissed from service on 6th October 2022.
The report further shows that the Director General of the Federal Investigation Agency was requested to initiation of criminal proceedings against Kaleem besides recovery of the amount. The Secretary of the Ministry of Interior was requested for the placement of Kaleem and his family members on the Exit Control List (ECL).
The authority also wants to confiscate his property to recover the embezzled amount. The District Collectors, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, and Multan were asked for recovery as arrears of Land Revenue.
Sources said, reportedly, the accused officials didn’t come back to Pakistan and fled to Canada before the initiation of departmental action against him.
Why was his name not included in ECL? Why not issue red notice against this man?
Mashallah well done those who appointed such person and we still proud to be a muslim.