Karachi:
The company against corruption has initiated a study of alleged irregularities in the printing of free textbooks from Sindh Textbook Board. The Board of Directors is accused of having awarded contracts to a value of RS5 billion to preferred publishers without following proper norms.
The probe has been intensified against chairman Parvez Baloch and former secretary Taimoor Khaskheli. ACES Karachi headquarters have called the officials to perform on October 2nd with all relevant items.
The study relates to the academic year 2024-2025, where printing contracts were reportedly given to selected publishers and bypassing fair bidding processes.
The anti-corruption team has required a comprehensive selection of documents, including national tax numbers (NTNs) of companies that have been awarded contracts, their details, their previous work, bidding reports, supply orders, delivery-challenging and items over advance payments made to them.
In addition, correspondence related to the purchasing committee has also been sought.
It is worth mentioning that Sindh Textbook Board annually prints and distributes about 5.5 million sets of textbooks, free of government schools throughout the province, making the integrity of this process important to the education sector.
The action from ACE emphasizes growing concern about transparency and calls for accountability in the public sector’s contracts, especially in areas that directly affect education.
