Major recruitment fraud in KP Finance dept uncovered

PESHAWAR: A major scandal has reportedly emerged in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Finance Department, where 88 illegal recruitments of drivers, Naib Qasids, and sanitary workers on fake position codes PR4041, PR8657, and PR8042, respectively, were made.

These irregularities, carried out between 2019 and 2024, have reportedly caused the state treasury a loss of over Rs440 million. Reports say documents reveal that the recruitments have been done secretly, out of the ambit of legal procedures.

No official advertisements were issued, no recruitment committee was formed, and the vacancies neither existed nor had proper approvals.

It was reported that basic employment records such as service books and medical records,s were missing for all 88 employees.

Sources claim that officials in both the Finance Department and the Accountant General’s Office were apparently implicated. The employees were reportedly almost immediately transferred from one department to another soon after the scandal came into the light, according to information obtained from official records.

Although the Finance Department formally issued a letter to the AG Office to suspend salaries, the latter reportedly ignored the order and continued to pay the individuals involved, prolonging the financial loss.

AG Office sources claimed inquiry orders were issued, but could not explain why salaries continued to be issued. Efforts to contact Accountant General Khalid Mahmood for an explanation have reportedly been unsuccessful.

KP Chief Minister’s Finance Adviser Mazammil Aslam has confirmed that an inquiry committee has been formed to determine those responsible for the Anti-Corruption Department also taking up the case.

He explained that there are different approved procedures for the recruitment against vacancies and for creating a new position, which is said to have been deliberately bypassed.

Aslam further added that the Finance Department traced and detected the fraud on its own, revealing one of the major financial irregularities in the recent past.