ISLAMABAD, Nov 27: Officials probing the alleged corruption of an additional director general of Department of Communication Security (DCS) have overlooked key witnesses during the investigation, Dawn has learnt.

DCS is an attached department of the cabinet division but works under the control of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

It provides production, evolution and distribution of cipher messages/codes to various users including the armed forces and intelligence agencies.

Talha Mohammad, the additional director general, has been accused of corruption and embezzlement since 2008 when he was made the head of the department.

He is facing an inquiry for receiving kickbacks while awarding contracts to private firms and for embezzlement ofRs2.9 million from the Staff Welfare Fund.

Therefore, federal secretary science and technology Kamran Qureshi and additional secretary Syed Tahir Naqvi were appointed to investigate the matter in June.

Earlier this year, a fact finding committee was comprised of additional secretary cabinet division Arshad Ali and Brigadier Mohammad Farooq Murawat of the division`s military wing. They had found a number of irregularities in the DCS affairs under Mr Talha`s command.

The committee pointed out that the DCS management had received kickbacks from a private firm (Sigman) for procuring a security system at a cost of Rs2.2 million which malfunctioned soon afteritsinstallation.

According to the committee, Talha was an employee of the DCS but had been `using ISI`s name to hide hiswrongdoings ... so that the cabinet division could not take appropriate action against him for fear of receiving a reaction from ISL` Subsequently on June 26 this year, the prime minister tasked Kamran Qureshi to initiate disciplinary proceedings against Mr Talha and submit a report to the PM secretariat.

However, sources in the cabinet division told Dawn that the inquiry officers had still not compiled the report.

Furthermore, they claimed that the officers had not recorded the statements of senior DCS officials including deputy director general Farrukh Nadeem, assistant director general Muddassar Ali, director Abdul Mutlib, and DCS security officer Jamal Nasir.

Similarly, Adnan Altaf, the general manager of the private firm, also wrote a letter to the PM`s secretary and secretary cabinet division statingthat the inquiry officers had not recorded his statement even though he had visited their offices several times.

In the letter, Mr Altaf alleged that he had personally given kickbacks in the name of donation to Mr Talha for a contract related to the procurement of security equipment.

He added that he would approach the high court and the Supreme Court if the investigation officers overlooked the evidence in order to clear Mr Talha.

Kamran Qureshi could not be contacted for his comments.

However, federal minister of science and technology Zahid Hamid said the prime minister had assigned the inquiry before Mr Qureshi`s posting in the ministry.

`Since Mr Qureshi is the authorised officer in the probe, I cannot comment on this matter` he added.