The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Thursday expressed serious anger and disappointment over the long delay in the completion of Lyari Expressway and massive cost escalation from Rs 4.89 billion to Rs 9.94 billion. The committee meeting, held here under the chairmanship of Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah, reviewed and discussed the audit paras of Ministry of Communications and Postal Services.
While briefing the PAC members, audit officials said that Lyari Expressway Project was started in 2004 with an estimated cost of Rs 4.89 billion, but the project completion was delayed and owing to this reason or that its cost has now reached Rs 9.94 billion. The committee members said that unnecessary delays in various projects are causing hundreds of billions of rupees losses to the national kitty, while departments concerned are not fulfilling their responsibilities.
The audit department said that senior officials of National Highway Authority (NHA) implemented the project without the approval of Executive Committee of National Economic Council (Ecnec) and violated set rules and regulations. The committee was told that the NHA spent an additional amount of Rs 1.84 billion in seven more projects including Peshawar Northern Bypass Project (PNB), which also included Kohala-Muzaffarabad Road, Jacobabad Road and Dera Allahyar Bypass without the approval of Ecnec or Central Development Working Party (CDWP).
The officials of Accountant General of Pakistan (AGP) said that the NHA authorities also changed Peshawar Northern Bypass Project without the approval of relevant quarters, which resulted in escalation of project cost from Rs 3.7 billion to Rs 9 billion. Member committee Mian Abdul Mannan said that a massive fraud was involved in the Peshawar By-Pass Road Project as the cost of the project was increased by Rs 3.32 billion.
Briefing the participants, the NHA officials informed that the PNB project had been delayed because of land acquisition issue relating to former legislator Noor Alam Khan. According to the NHA officials, package-I of the PNB was scheduled to be completed by May 2011, but it was completed in 2014 and still some work on it is under way.
The project's package-II could not be completed by the deadline of March this year and its completion date has now been revised to September next year. Similarly, its package-III could not be completed at its stipulated time of October 2014 and now its completion date has been revised to December 2018.
The committee on the request of the principal accounting officer of Ministry of Communications directed the relevant quarters to complete an inquiry into the matter within a month. The audit officials informed the panel that the NHA awarded toll plaza contracts to a same party for the past 15 years from 1999 to 2014.
During the years toll plaza charges kept on increasing as well as the number of vehicles crossing from such plazas, but the contractors submitted same amount as in first year, which caused millions of rupees loss to the national kitty, while contractor made huge amount.
The chairman NHA replying to the audit observations said that the authority whenever tried to allocate contract to new person or renew it with the existing party, the NAB authorities stopped the NHA from doing so; therefore, the practice continued for 15 years.
The PAC also took the notice of Rs 820 million spending on planting grass and trees on the sides of Islamabad-Peshawar Motorway and declared that the huge amount from the national kitty is spent against the set rules and regulations as the officials think that there is no one to make them accountable.
The PAC was stunned to a revelation that Rs 200.04 million various valuable goods including vehicle were stolen from the Ministry of Postal Services in 20 theft cases. Senior officials of the Ministry of Postal Services informed the committee that six cases are being probed by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and 14 by National Accountability Bureau (NAB). The panel handed over the matter of 20 theft cases to the subcommittee of the PAC to further investigate the matter and present a report to the main committee.
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