A special committee of Public Accounts Committee (PAC) while rejecting explanation of Federal Government Employees Housing Foundation (FGEHF) on Thalian Joint Venture Housing Project has declared the project as impractical because the entire process was carried out in violation of set rules and regulations. The special committee met here on Wednesday under the chairmanship of Sardar Ashiq Hussain Gopang and decided that the committee will forward findings of the special audit report to the PAC for further deliberations.
It was revealed that KS Builders sold Rs 3 billion of land to various clients, but it has neither powers of attorney nor ownership rights of the land. The audit officials told the committee that the KS. Builders signed agreement prior to giving advertisement in national media. The special audit report conducted under the supervision of senior officials from Auditor General of Pakistan declared the scheme as bogus and fraud.
Senator Azam Swati of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf said that the officials of FGEHF and the federal minister for housing and works were complicit in the scheme. Sawati said that all those involved in the bogus scheme must be arrested. Senior officials of the FGEHF during the meeting tried their best to satisfy the objections raised by the committee members but failed to do so. The special committee has provided a list of 13 questions to the audit officials to conduct special audit study regarding the project.
As per special study report, the KS Builders were not fulfilling the basic conditions of the expression of interest, as the developer first inked agreement with the FGEHF and issued advertisement to print media after signing the contract.
The advertisement appeared in the press on March 22, 2015, whereas the KS Builders was established on March 20, 2015. The company opened a bank account in April 2015 and obtained the National Tax Number (NTN) in June 2015. It means when the FGEHF had advertised the project the 'successful bidder' had neither a bank account nor an NTN.
Moreover, the special committee observed that the owners of the company, Khalid Javed and Saifullah Awan, were not competent to execute the project as their company had no experience of sector planning and developing. Swati said that he visited the location of the project which totally does not fulfill the requirements of the agreement and set conditions in the expression of interest. He said that moreover the KS Builders didn't have property rights as well as lack powers of attorney. He maintained that company also failed to present its 5 to 10 years record to the quarters concerned.
The secretary housing and works while briefing the participants said if there was any mistake or irregularity, the ministry is ready to review it. The committee observed that the joint venture partner in the project will earn Rs 24 billion from the entire process as the basic land price is Rs 70,000 per kanal, while the FGEHF fixed land price at Rs 425,000 per kanal. The committee was stunned to learn that the land purchased at Rs 425,000 per kanal by the land developers will be sold to the final client at Rs 2.4 million.
The committee observed if standard land development charges of 60 percent are applied on the land, per kanal cost should not be exceed over Rs 650,000 per kanal. The committee said that the authority has gone into a deal with the front men of influential persons who wanted to make multibillion rupees from the project.
The committee was briefed by the director general FGEHF with regard to acquisition of land process of Thallian Interchange Joint Venture Housing Project and availability and access from Islamabad-Lahore Motorway along with its site plan, maps etc. He informed the committee that fifteen companies had participated in the prequalification process, out of 15 companies, seven companies were shortlisted. Later on, one company was qualified for the project.
However, the committee was of the view that government is collecting public money for the development, etc. The director general FGEHF said that the foundation will provide premium on the deposit of public money, instead of deduction at the time of refund, if required by someone. The chairman committee said that the ministry and FGEHF officials should have avoided going into a faulty deal with the developer, which has no past experience.
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