The country’s biggest missing containers scam yet to be resolved, some customs officials with malice intentions again creating similar situation as a number of clearance of Insurance Guarantee (IGs) have been detected that were not fed in the system to complete the procedure of insurance in transit trade facility between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Pakistan Customs has initiated departmental action against the officials and placed some of them under suspension and recommendations for strict action forwarded for some others who had attained age of superannuation. The charges leveled against those officials were said to be releasing IGs in respect of Afghan Transit Cargo without fulfillment of legal and procedural formalities. According to sources about 432 files were processed and forwarded by the Afghan Transit Section of MCC Appraisement to Bank Guarantee Section for cancellation of the IGs. They said that out of 432 files forwarded, 85 IGs were cancelled by the BG Section. These IGs were cancelled without ensuring that CBC’s had been fed in the system, therefore, such GDs were showing status of pending feeding of Cross Border Certificates by the respective exit collectorates. Findings of the customs authorities revealed that the officers posted in Afghan Transit Section of MCC Appraisement namely Liaqat Ali (Principal Appraiser) and Sajjad Bokhari (Appraising Officer) forwarded the files to BG Section. The sources said that both the officials had been suspended by the authorities and departmental action was initiated against them. They said that it was the responsibility of the Afghan Transit Section to clearly direct the BG Section that IGs should be released only if the CBCs have been fed in the system by the respective exit collectorates. Alternatively, the Afghan Transit Section should have checked in the system whether CBCs have been fed in the system or not, before forwarding the files to BG Section for cancellation of the IGs. “Liaqat Ali and Sajjad Bokhari displayed negligence in fulfilling their responsibilities and as a result, the IGs were cancelled without fulfillment of the requisite formalities. The findings of the authorities further revealed that officers posted in BG section including Shabir Bokhar (Principal Appraiser) and Saleem Akhtar (Examining Officer) were well aware of the fact that IGs cannot be cancelled unless CBCs have been fed in the system. The sources said that both the officers were scheduled to retire on Wednesday June 05, 2013. However, authorities had requested the FBR to take stern action against them for their negligence. The sources said that despite knowing, both the officers cancelled 85 IGs out of the 432 files forwarded by Afghan Transit Section. It is further identified that these 85 files have the same clearing agents M/s. M M Ellahi. The sources said that after cancelling the 85 IGs, the officers informed that system was not accepting the deletion of the relevant entry. Therefore, Shabir Bokhari and Saleem Akhtar had failed to fulfill their responsibilities and cancelled the IGs despite being well aware of the formalities to be fulfilled.
Posted on: Wed, 05 Jun 2013 07:32:57 +0000
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