ISLAMABAD: Expressing serious concerns over alleged massive corruption of multi-billion rupees in Hascol Petroleum by its top management, the Senate’s Standing Committee on Petroleum has summoned SECP, State Bank, Ministry of Petroleum, FIA and other relevant departments to its next meeting, according to media reports.
The Senate committee met in Parliament House with Senator Abdul Qadir in the chair and discussed the corruption in this public listed company, in which tens of billions of rupees of investors had sunk.
Senator Afnan Ullah Khan said that the management of Hascol had made Rs7.5 billion through fake purchase orders while its Chief Executive Officer (CEO) has done fraud of Rs8 billion in oil. This company has made accumulative fraud of around Rs75 billion, he said, asking the chair to summon the relevant investigative bodies to find out their progress in the case.
Senator Mohsin Aziz said that this committee should hold a combined meeting with the Senate’s Standing Committee on Finance and review the case and progress.
Senator Saadia Abbasi said it would be appropriate that the committee summoned all the relevant ministries, SECP, SBP, FIA to know its status and, if required, ask for stern action as it involved huge losses of investors. The committee unanimously decided to summon these ministries and departments and hold a one-point agenda meeting in a few days.
The new board of Hascol recently disclosed to the Pakistan Stock Exchange that they had possibly uncovered some fake purchases against fixed assets and the company was in the process of completing its investigation and see if there is any impact on the accounts.
“Unfortunately, some people have associated that with oil imports which is entirely baseless as all oil imports are managed through a well-structured and duly regulated process. These allegations are therefore spurious and Hascol reserves its legal rights to act against the sources of this disinformation,” said the company.
