National Highway Authority (NHA) has awarded 25 percent of total work to Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) through open bidding, Secretary Communication Shahid Ashraf Tarar said on Wednesday. Talking to media persons after the conclusion of Public Accounts Committee (PAC)'s sub-committee, he said days are gone when the FWO had been awarded contract without competition. The rules have been amended and the FWO has to take part in the bidding for winning the contract of NHA.
The Public Accounts Committee's sub-committee also examined the special audit report on the remittances between general and head post offices along with report on working of dispensaries of Pakistan Post for year 1998-99. In most of the cases record was not produced to audit for verification.
The Secretary Communication assured the committee that the ministry would direct all the Pakistan Post officers to provide record of any embezzlement and irregularities happened during 1998-99 as pointed out in the audit report. He said that those who would not produce the record or hiding the facts must be taken to task. In one case, the remittances of Rs 38 million made and acknowledged by 4 GPOs during 1996-97 to 1998-99 were irregularly acknowledged by the responding units during 1997-98 to 1999-2000. This resulted not only in non clearance of the remittances in question during the same financial year, but the expenditure involved relating to previous years was wrongly charged to the budget grants of the subsequent years.
Pakistan Post Office Directorate General Islamabad could neither procure the records relating to the basis of selection of 18 cities for establishing 23 dispensaries nor the orders of the government to establish these dispensaries as well as their role, objectives and functions etc. All these places were big cities. The audit observed if the department was desirous to act for the welfare of its staff, these dispensaries should have been established at places where health facilities were either nor in existence or in sufficient.
The Postmaster General, Lahore published a tender notice in October 1998 for submission of rates for the bulk supply of medicines during 1998-99 in the dispensaries under his jurisdiction. The bids received from 36 tenders were compiled in the form of a comparative statement in the records of the dispensary at Lahore GPO. No further action ie minutes containing the recommendations of the tender committee and approval of the Postmaster General to acceptance or otherwise of these bids was available on record.
Medicines worth Rs 0.397 millions of 11 manufacturers were purchased from suppliers who had not produced authority letters from these manufacturers with their bids that they were the authorised distributors. Medicines valuing Rs 0.170 million were purchased from 10 suppliers who had not given bids.
The record showed that the authority letters from manufacturer "Sami" were produced with their bids by the two tenders M/s Umair Enterprises at 1 percent discount on trade price and Sheeba Corporation at trade price. The indent for supply of medicines of this manufacturer was not placed on Umair Enterprises but was placed on Sheeba Corporation causing extra expenditure in the shape of loss of discount.
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