BISE BOARD Lahore Case

LAHORE

Dr Majid Naeem, former Information Technology consultant to all eight Boards of Intermediate and Secondary Examination (BISEs) in Punjab, revealed before the judicial commission on Tuesday that all boards had minted millions of rupees from the students in the name of computerized system and waster money on purchase of unnecessary things.

He furnished 30 pages reply before the commission and stated that the BISEs authorities had collected Rs 300 million by charging Rs.100 from each student but they had concealed the minted money as it was not shown in accounts. He said the authorities had wasted the money by purchased unnecessary things.

Naeem defended the on-line system saying the employees of the BISEs had failed the computerized system to settle score with the present BISE chairman. The NationalAccountability Bureau officials produced handcuffed Dr Majid before the commission comprising Justice Shahid Saeed, probing the errors and faults made in the intermediate results.

Dr Naeem said the “Booty mafia” elements among the BISEs employees had tried to create an impression that the system had collapsed. He said that, in 2009, during the matriculation examination, BISE employees had gone on strike and refused to prepare results. He said the government had got detained various BISE employees under section 16 of Maintenance of Public Order and the employees had held BISE chairman responsible for their detention. He said the same person was again appointed as the chairman before this year exams and the employees had decided to avenge themselves on him by failing the system fail.

About his arrest by the NAB, Dr Majid said that, in 2001, admission papers of the Punjab University were prepared for which the PU vice chancellor himself had made payment but he was illegally implicated in the case.

He said he had also served at the Government College University (GCU), Lahore, but resigned to protest illegal admissions made by the then registrar. He said he was given the task to accomplish the project in three months at the UET which he had successfully completed. He said he had rendered his services at the UET and the PU without getting any remuneration. He said his services were hired by the Punjab Boards Chairmen Committee (PBCC) and he was

awarded a contract against Rs500,000 for four months. He said he had served for one year and four months for the BISEs but he had received only Rs 220,000. He said now the PBCC had given the same task to the Pakistan Telecommunication Limited for Rs15 million.



He also rejected the allegations that he had received kickbacks in purchase of equipment foron-line system. He said he had nothing to do with purchase as it was the responsibility of the BISEs to buy the items. He said authorities should produce a single receipt signed by him. He said he had asked authorities to cancel tenders for purchase of unnecessary computer devices.

He said consultants of all BISEs were taken on board and he had been regularly briefing the chairmen of the BISEs and their IT consultants on the progress in the work, and he had never bypassed them.

He said no chairman of the BISEs had even a basic knowledge of the computerized system and he had been briefing them by translating computer terminology in their own language. At this, the judge said it seemed he had taken advantage of this situation and made the chairmen fool.

He also denied the allegations that he had designed complicated answer sheets and admission forms. He said he had reduced the admission forms from six pages to only one page and made them foolproof.

He said he had not introduced new on-line system as it was launched by his predecessor, Yousaf Hamdani, who was terminated as he failed to run it smoothly.

He said he had requested the BISEs employees in written to also prepare results manually too but they had not done so. They had also not used software he had launched, he said and added that different BISEs had used their own software and could not prepare error-free results.

Lahore BISE Store Superintendent Tahir, appearing before the commission, said Dr Majid had cancelled various tenders, terming them useless. He said different items were purchased by Dr Majid but he was unable to produce proof, when asked by the judge.

At this, the commission ordered him to appear on Thursday with proofs. He also admitted that bar code readers were purchased with lesser rates on recommendations of Dr Majid instead of those which were finalized by BISE’s authorities on high rates.

Malik Nisar, representative of Multan BISE employees union, said corruption of millions of rupees was committed through this system. He could not provide any written proof in this regard. The commission adjourned the hearing for November 24, summoning the Lahore board controller of examination. <