LAKKI MARWAT: A team of the anti-corruption establishment (ACE) has launched a probe into the alleged embezzlement of funds in the government girls schools in the district.

“The probe was initiated on the orders of ACE provincial director Nawabzada Ziaullah Toru,” ACE circle officer Shahid Adnan said on Monday.

Mr Adnan said the ACE had received complaints about misuse of the funds meant for making available basic facilities to schools like building additional classrooms, boundary walls, latrines and water supply schemes. He said ACE Lakki team visited government girls primary school, Sarfraz Landaka, and girls middle school, Chowkijand, and seized the record of funds utilisation. The team also inspected the construction work and would submit a report about the quality of construction material, he added.

The ACE official said legal action would be taken against the members of the parent-teacher councils, responsible for funds utilisation, in the light of the probe findings.

The ACE circle officer said the team also paid surprise inspection visits to the offices of agriculture department in Naurang and health department in Tajazai. It found several staffers absent from duty in basic health unit, Shahbazkhel, and the district headquarters hospital Tajazai, he said, adding heads of concerned departments were directed to deduct salaries of the absent employees. The official said samples of medicines were collected from the DHQ hospital and sent to laboratory for examination.