Transparency International Pakistan has expressed serious concern over reports that Ministry of Water and Power(MoW&P) is seeking exemption from Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) Rules and that the government is considering 'direct contracting' to spur investment in power sector.
Chairman, TI-Pakistan, Sohail Muzaffar in a letter sent on June 7 to Federal Minister for Water and Power, Khawaja Muhammad Asif has invited his attention to TI-Pakistan letter of Jan 27 and reminder sent on March 20, on the subject, but unfortunately no response has been received from the Minister.
"This request of exemption from tendering of power projects, to be awarded on the basis of MoU costs, from you if proved to be true and approved by Economic Co-ordination Committee (ECC), may amount to the biggest corruption scam in the history of Pakistan, and the nation will not spare the wrongdoers."
MoU of US $35 billion signed with Chinese companies can not be implemented at the whims and wishes of anyone, be it Secretary, Minister or the Prime Minister, as law of necessity has been buried by the Supreme Court in NRO case.
He referred to an article published in a local daily which says that "scope and applicability of the PPRA rules should exclude procurements where private sector financing, export credit scheme, concessional credit, suppliers or buyers credit, BOO, BOOT modes are involved as they do not include recourse to public funds and public procurements as defined under the PPRA Rules."
The amendments in the PPRA Rules 2004 for the development of infrastructure power projects in the private sector were suggested by the acting secretary, Saif Ullah Chattha, who has been removed from the post recently.
Sohail Muzaffar has requested the minister "in the name of Rule of Law, to immediately withdraw this amendment in the PPRA Rules, which is a direct contradiction to Prime Minister, Mian Nawaz Sharif's declared policy of "Zero tolerance against corruption".
Transparency International Pakistan is striving for across the board application of Rule of Law, which is the only way to stop corruption, he said.
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