Chairman National Highways Authority (NHA) on Friday grilled the officials of the Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP), saying that the audit officials are making a mountain out of a molehill in audit reports. While briefing the subcommittee of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) which met here under the chairmanship of Shafqat Mehmood, Chairman NHA Shahid Ashraf Tarar said that the AGP in annual audit report 2016-17 has acknowledged that the NHA has made savings of over Rs 350 billion from July 2013 to December 2016.
While exchanging harsh words with the Director General Audit Maqbool Gondal, Tarar said that the AGP in its annual audit report for year 2016-17 has acknowledged that savings worth billions of rupees were made in the award of highway and motorway contracts through an open and transparent process. He showed disappointment over the allegation levelled against Ministry of Communication by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Member National Assembly in a letter to the Chairman PAC Khursheed Ahmad Shah that corruption to the tune of Rs 450 billion has taken place in the ministry. He said that audit officials without going into the details were picking up an entire project and mention that this much amount is embezzled against reality.
Citing audit report he said that according to the report, the management of NHA has carried out an independent review of cost-effective procurement of major projects undertaken by NHA during the period from 1st of July 2013 to 31st December 2016. According to the report, the NHA entered into contracts for 104 works for Rs 761.90 billion against the bid price /engineer's estimate of Rs 978.29 billion, resulting into saving of Rs 216.39 billion. In addition, another saving of Rs 134.889 billion was observed by undertaking certain important and imperative projects on BOT basis without any financing from or through government exchequer.
Such an acknowledgement in the Auditor General's Report by itself was unprecedented, said the chairman. The committee after listening to the complains of the NHA chairman said that as audit officials have agreed with his point of view so now NHA and AGP officials must make a joint mechanism to address such issues.
Audit officials said that NHA awarded construction of Khanewal-Multan Motorway (M-4) contract of Rs 12.39 billion to an unregistered firm. Audit officials added that it was observed during the audit of NHA that allocating contracts to unregistered firms was a routine matter and such firms after getting contracts are registering them with the authority.
The chairman NHA said that the Khanewal-Multan Motorway (M-4) has been completed wherein the authority has saved Rs 1 billion, adding that the authority before awarding a contract to a company was collecting necessary details after which a contract was awarded.
Audit officials said that NHA used substandard material in a road project which was later improved at a cost of Rs 1.18 billion. Replying to the objection, Tarar said that this case has been sent to National Accountability Bureau after conducting departmental inquiry. The NAB officials replied that no misconduct or corruption was found in the project, and following the NAB's response the committee settled the para.
The panel was further informed that the NHA has completed Lyari Expressway project and it would be inaugurated next month. The chairman NHA informed the committee that the entire process of bidding was made open and competitive as a result of which 56 highways construction projects that were initiated between January 2013 and September 2017, were awarded at 21.56% below the original bid or engineer's estimates. Similarly, 129 maintenance projects were awarded at 22.51% below the original bid or engineer's estimate for the same period.
The chairman NHA informed the meeting that works on several sick projects was initiated during the last four years. These projects were not only revived but also successfully completed. He gave the example of Lowari Tunnel which, he said, was completed and opened for traffic in July. Similarly, in Balochistan around 650km road network was added with connectivity with Gwadar. Lyari Expressway, another sick project, was in the final stages of completion and would be inaugurated next month, he said. The sub-committee reviewed NHA's replies against audit observations on Khanewal-Multan Motorway (M-4), Indus Highway (N-55) and Hazara Motorway projects, and recommended for their settlement after accepting the department's reply.
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