Major financial scandal exposed in Azad Kashmir vehicles purchase for ambulances

ISLAMABAD (Rizwan Abbasi): The irregularities worth billions were revealed in the purchase of 24 ambulances for the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) government’s Health Department.

The Azad Kashmir’s Ehtesab Bureau has directed Toyota Indus Motors and Toyota Azad Motors to provide complete records within 10 days as part of the ongoing investigation into the scandal.

According to documents obtained by Daily Ausaf, Toyota Azad Motors signed an agreement on May 8, 2023, for the supply of ‘Toyota Hiace Commuter High Roof (Ambulance) 2023’ to the Health Department of Azad Kashmir, the price of which was fixed at Rs 17.74 million per vehicle.

Surprisingly, the company later gave a huge discount of Rs 1.9 million per vehicle and completed the contract at Rs 15.8 million per vehicle.

However, at the time of supply, the company supplied 2022 model vehicles instead of 2023 model, which is a clear violation of the contract, the document revealed.

Further investigation revealed that no record of the supplied vehicles was available on the Toyota company’s website and the Excise Department’s tax portal, raising serious questions on the import and payments of these vehicles.

According to sources, the Toyota company also did not provide the details of the bill of lading of these vehicles, which hampered the assembly of the vehicles and caused a loss of Rs 14.73 crore to the national exchequer.

Moreover, the same model of vehicles was sold to another department of the Azad Kashmir government at a price of Rs 9.7 million per vehicle, while the Health Department was sold at a higher price of Rs 6.14 million, further raising concerns of financial corruption worth billions of rupees.

The government has directed the companies to provide bills of lading, tax payment details, and an explanation for the price difference within 10 days; otherwise, “the matter will be considered as serious financial corruption and further legal action will be taken,” the letter written to the companies read.