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A presentation was made at the President's office on Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDC), saying that it was pampering a group, led by China Petroleum Engineering and Construction Corporation (CPECC) to get its contracts through unfair means.
Sources said that Petrosin CEO, Major General (Retd) Saeed Wahla, the complainant, claimed in his presentation that CEPCC, a Chinese oil and gas company, was involved in wrong business practices to get the contracts from OGDC of millions of dollars.
Saeed Wahla informed the President office that CPECC had offered him kickback for staying away from OGDC's Singoro and Tando Allahyar fields contracts. Wahla said that he brought the matter to OGDC authorities' notice to save the organisation from huge loss and take action against the mafia.
OGDC had invited bids for Singoro and Tando Allahyar some time back. Petrosin was competitor of CPECC and Techno Engineering for the contracts. It came to light during the course of short-listing of the parties that Techno Engineering CEO Jamal Ansari had approached Petrosin chief, Saeed Wahla, in Islamabad to offer 'co-operation fee' for staying away from Singoro and Tando Allahyar contract.
Saeed kept Jamal Ansari engaged in negotiations, and prepared videos and audio cassettes of the talks. He provided these videos and audio cassettes to President General Pervez Musharraf, who passed on the evidence to Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz for action. The Prime Minister referred the case to OGDC for investigation to find the truth. OGDC top man got the material from Prime Minister office through the Ministry of Petroleum and put it a side as a routine matter. Instead, OGDC management short-listed CPECC for $200 million Qadirpur compression project.
Here again rules were not followed, and CPECC was allowed to bid for Qadirpur compression project, against the rules and regulations. ILF, a German consultant for Qadirpur compression project, expressed serious reservation over CPECC out of the box entry into bidding process, and registered its protest with the management.
The consultant report, made available to Business Recorder, indicated serious shortcomings in CPECC's bid document. It showed that CPECC lacks required experience and expertise for a technical project like Qadirpur compression project as very small projects of 3-4 million dollars were to its credit.
This stunning report even did not stop OGDC from giving undue favour to CPECC as its management opened CPECC's financial bid last week.
OGDC's working against rules and regulations for awarding contracts of millions of dollars was costing it dearly as majority of its big projects could not take off. It also provided a golden opportunity to question CPECC's entry into Qadirpur compression project that motivated Petrosin to take the matter to President office to get OGDC restrained from following a policy of awarding contracts in violation of the rules.
In his presentation, Saeed Wahla said: "It is shocking for me to know that OGDC was processing CPECC's financial bid for its $200 million Qadirpur compression project even after knowing very well that it offered kickback to Petrosin for 'co-operation' in Singoro and Tando Allahyar projects."
He said that OGDC decision of pampering CPECC was a serious issue and it should be taken care of by the President and Prime Minister who want the state-owned companies to introduce a culture of good governance in their working.
The presentation said that Saeed Wahla had sent a full set of videos and audios to OGDC management on April 21, last and later on he met OGDC chief on May 23, 2006 to discuss the entire sequence of events as covered in the transcripts and video and audio proof were discussed.
He said it was proved beyond doubt that CPECC vice president PLiu Xihui, in cahoots with Abid Ali of Techno Engineering of Pakistan, Jamal Akbar Ansari, Pakistan representative of Hanover, USA (a party to Jamshoro Joint Venture Limited "personally offered me $16 million (later enhanced to $22 million through Jamal Akbar Ansari) as a fee for co-operation" from Petrosin in a scam to cheat OGDCL for about $300 million.
He further claimed that NAB and former OGDC managing director were kept fully in picture on event to event basis. The presentation claimed that Liu Xihui's offer was clearly recorded in video No 15 already in your possession.
It said" "In the given situation it is rather shocking to me that no action has been taken against CPECC and other companies for involving in kickback negotiations to get the contracts from OGDC for Singoro and Tando Allahyar projects".
Saeed Wahla brought the matter to the President's notice who took strict notice and asked the Prime Minister to look into the matter and make sure that the state interest was not hurt in any case.
The Prime Minister referred the case to Petroleum Ministry and asked it for forensic investigation. Although a series of meetings were held from April to June but ultimate end, with one exception of black-listing Jamal Ansari's Techno Engineering, was zero as no responsibility was fixed against any of the accused parties.
Interestingly, investigators in this case did not bother to notice as to why OGDC former managing director, Raziuddin, allowed CPECC to run for Qadirpur compression when it was accused of offering kickback for Singoro and Tando Allahyar projects. Defying the President and Prime Minister's orders in this case indicates how serious the state-owned companies were in good governance and establishing the rule of law to get the right party for their projects.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2006

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