Islamabad - The Red Crescent Fund collected by a number of public-sector educational institutions in Punjab never reached the aid agency account, an official revealed on Monday.
The National Accountability Bureau has been approached through an official application seeking an inquiry into millions of rupees collected by secondary and higher-secondary educational institutions of Rawalpindi and Jehlum region, the official said.
As per the documents, public-sector educational institutions in both the regions were collecting Rs60 from each student under the head of ‘Hilal-e-Ahmar Fund’. However, authorities of the Pakistan Red Crescent in the said regions are unaware of any such fund, as it was never transferred into accounts of the aid agency, the official said.
The official added that the practice was underway for around four years and no exact amount could be determined because of the absence of financial record of the fund.
Dr Sharif Malik of the PRC Rawalpindi confirmed the development and informed The Nation that the PRC received receipts from a number of colleges charging Rs60 in the name of ‘Hilal-e-Ahmar Fund’. He said that they had no record of the fund whether or not it was transferred to the aid agency.
As per the complaint received at NAB, the PRC district branch in Rawalpindi is running a number of projects for welfare of the ailing humanity, while all its activities depend on the funds raised through different means including donations, income generated by its own projects and through education department of the district.
The education department of the district adopts different ways for fund raising including Red Crescent tickets, Meena bazaars and weeks etc, it said.
The complaint added that the PRC authorities had come to know that there was another source of collecting funds for the PRC, the Hilal-e-Ahmer Fund, which was being collected on compulsory basis from the students of colleges and higher-secondary schools with their annual fees. In Rawalpindi, more than one hundred thousand students are paying the amount.
The complainant said that the amount collected from educational institutions of Rawalpindi and Jehlum were never transferred to the Pakistan Red Crescent, Rawalpindi.
There are about 3 million students enrolled annually only at college level in Punjab, who might be paying this amount, making it around Rs180 million in one year and could be in billions of rupees if counted for several years and the schools as well, it said.
District Education Officer Rawalpindi Qazi Tariq Mehmood while talking to The Nation said that there was no mechanism of transferring the fund to the aid agency.
He said that the funds collected from the students were in the accounts of education department but could not be transferred to the PRC as there was no agreement between the two departments to this effect.
He also said that though there was no estimate of how much fund existed in this regard, but a huge amount is spent on the welfare of the needy students, he claimed.
The EDO said that the department could try to reach an agreement and make a mechanism for transferring these funds to the PRC.
