MES failed to finalise 523 contracts in 31 years

The Military Engineering Services (MES) authorities have failed to finalise bills of 523 contracts during 31 years from 1969 to 2000 involving millions of rupees, an audit report said.
The audit report of the MES for 2001-02 prepared by the Auditor General of Pakistan said as per the data collected final bills of 523 contracts from 1969-2000 had been lying pending out of which value of 266 contracts was Rs 1,348.821 million, while the amount of remaining 257 contracts was not made available for audit.
According the provision of para 613 of Defence Services Regulations for the MES and Clause 61 of PAFW-2249 forming part of work contracts provide that the contractor would submit the final bill immediately after completion of the work, the report added.
In case final bill is not submitted by a contractor within 30 days after completion of the work, it would be prepared by the account department and would be finalised as soon as possible, even if the contractor refuses to sign the bill.
The MES authorities did not follow the provision in letter and spirit.
The report also said that in 11 cases running payment of Rs 6.724 million were made to the contractors during 1974 to 1986, which were retained by the contractors. Cases were not finalised against these contractors by the executives to avoid accountability.
Similarly, in violation of the rules work had been got executed and payment were made in 29 contracts during 1977 to 1995 without approval of the deviation orders, amendments and star rates. Heavy overpayments/irregularities in these contracts could not be ruled out.
An amount of Rs 36.400 million incurred against these contracts remained un-audited owing to non-finalisation of these contract agreements.
The report said that 12 final bills were pending from 1977 to 1995 for want of scrutiny, which involved Rs 27.388 million.
Cases of 46 final bills involving Rs 348.961 million, which undertook from 1989-1996, were not finalised on the plea that the cases relating to these bills were under trial in the court of law. But the plea was not acceptable, as the court did not restrict the MES to finalise these bills.
Another 294 bills had been lying pending for miscellaneous reasons, involving Rs 506.269 million, while in 51 bills from 1971 to 1998 overpayment of Rs 109.529 million had been made to the contractors.
Similarly, another 19 cases of overpayment, bill pending for want of scrutiny were also detected, which involves irregularities of millions of rupees.