A fake letter scandal has left the KP government scrambling to refund Rs. 40.62 million, raising important questions about oversight.

 

 

Peshawar ,  In a stunning letter attempt at manipulating the government officers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa that emerged this January 2024, to date, no proper inquiry has been conducted nine months later. The letter claimed to have emerged from the finance department, telling the Shangla deputy commissioner that he should facilitate a refund voucher of Rs. 40.62 million to be used to acquire land for Tehsil Playground Alpuri for Lilownai.

Although the deceitful character of the letter became evident in January, shockingly, as of October 2024, no one from the Sports Directorate or any other relevant authorities have taken significant action or launched an inquiry into this matter.

Nine Months of Silence: No Accountability from the Sports Directorate

This scandal goes way back to 11 January, 2024. On that day, the Deputy Commissioner of Shangla received an official communication No. 970-89/7/HC/DC/SH about refund voucher. It was shown that on Rs 40.62 million were given under ADP which was from Annual Development Programme for purpose of taking the land and getting vacated under the "Establishment of Playground in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa" scheme. After de-notifying the project, the amount was claimed back by the Sports Department.

During this time, a second letter allegedly from the Finance Department leaked on 25th January 2024, demanding that the refund should happen. The letter seemed official by 30th January the Finance Department termed it as a fake letter and signature. Section Officer of the Finance Department claimed that neither letter nor the signature became to be real; all parties are asked to halt financial activities concerning the matter.

Whereas the warning was very vocally let out by the Finance Department and the seriousness of the matter, yet nobody has been taken for questioning from the Sports Directorate or the offices concerned since nine months have passed without a single utterance.

This deafening silence has serious implications regarding any lack of oversight and accountability that exist within the departments and governing bodies about funds management.

It is the latest in a long list of financial scandals in sports projects in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. No action was taken for nine months in this case too, and it underscores the apparent unwillingness or inability of the Sports Directorate to enforce transparency and accountability.

Recent audits exposed more shocking proofs of mismanagement, such as payments for nonexecuted work at the Jamrud Sports Complex, overpayment to contractors, and irregular awards of contracts for facilities like the Lala Ayub Hockey Ground and the Bannu Tartan Track. These together prove the negligence towards public money allocated for sports infrastructure in the province.

had the forged letter succeeded, it would have siphoned as much as Rs 40.62 million in public funds. That it was exposed but pursued with no degree of intensity of investigation points to serious weakness in government systems. More disturbing, however is that this and the multiplicity of other financial impropriety cases suggest public money in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa can be manipulated and so corrupted with impunity.

 

Nine months have elapsed since the unholy nexus was exposed, and with no accountability, public confidence in the adminstration handling sports projects only further erodes. Inquiries related to the role of the Sports Directorate in the scandal have been conspicuous by their absence, raising questions regarding the adequacy of internal controls as well as government transparency.

Nearly a year later, the scandal remains unresolved and thus calls for the provincial government to open a comprehensive investigation on the sham letter and more fundamentally into the mismanagement of funds for sport. Without real accountability, such incidents will continue undermining public trust and even putting government funds into continued financial mismanagement.