National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has declared Rs 10 billion urea import deal flawed, but it has given a clean chit to the concerned officials by just issuing a warning for the future.
Official documents reveal that the Economic Co-ordination Committee(ECC) of the Cabinet presided over by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, on July 2, 2013 had allowed the import of 0.3 million tons of urea under the guise of an "emergency" while setting aside Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules 2004 which opposed the proposal saying that " there is no emergency".
A minimum period of 30 days is mandatory for International Competitive Bidding (ICB) to submit applications from the date of publication of advertisement notice in press.
According to the documents, NAB has questioned three senior officials of the Ministry of Industries and Production (MoI&P) who moved the summary and one officer of TCP, Karachi. However top officials, ie, Secretary Industries and Production, Shaqat Naghmi and Chairman Trading Corporation of Pakistan, Rizwan Ahmad (who is now demoted to BPS 20 in the light of a Supreme Court of Pakistan's decision) have not been questioned. The officials who were grilled are: (i) Abdul Sattar Khokhar, Joint Secretary; (ii) Hashim Hussain, Deputy Secretary; (iii) Abdul Hafeez, General Manager (Finance) TCP, Karachi; and (iv) Ismail Iqbal, Deputy Secretary(policies), Ministry of Industries and Production.
The documents further disclose that the issue of the fertiliser (urea) procurement by the Ministry of Industries and Production on the pretext of the emergency clause of the Public Procurement Rules (PPR) 2004 was discussed at length.
"It was clarified by NAB Prevention Committee in the light of the Supreme Court's interpretation in the decision title 'Safe City Project Islamabad' that the authority to declare emergency rests with the federal government and not the procuring agency."
Insiders claim that the NAB officials in a meeting with the officials of concerned Ministry and the TCP on September 6, 2103 made it clear that the import of urea under the pretext of emergency is illegal.
However, it was noted by the representatives of the Ministry and TCP that the contract for urea procurement has already been signed and the first shipment is being received shortly.
After hearing the viewpoints of the officials of MoI&P and TCP, being fait accompli, NAB advised that in future such kinds of procurement on the pretext of the misinterpretation of the emergency clause of PPR 2004 must be avoided.
It was further instructed that PPRA is the sole bonafide and competent forum to interpret the PPRA 2004 and in future cases arising doubt or requiring interpretation other than plain application of rules must be referred to PPRA.
"In future, NAB will take cognisance of such cases of mis-procurement and formal inquiry will be authorised against the delinquent and the subject mis-procurement and these instructions will be citied as testimony against the defaulters," said, Muhamamd Tahir Addition Director, NAB in a letter to the Secretary Industries and Production, Shafqat Naghmi, a copy of which was also sent to Chairman TCP and Managing Director PPRA.
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