The federal government is likely to remove three Irsa members for allegedly clashing with World Bank's consultants for telemetry system project worth $ 4.5 million, sources close to Secretary Ministry of Water Resources told Business Recorder.
Sharing the details, sources said the prime minister, in a meeting held on May 15, 2019 and subsequently on December 20, 2019, during the CCI meeting, underlined the need for installation of robust and reliable telemetry stations without further delay in order to address complaints of the provinces on water regulation. The CCI, while considering Attorney General's Report in its meeting held on December 23, 2019 also decided that a telemetry system should also be introduced immediately to ensure actual quantity of water in the reservoirs and its release to the provinces.
Water Division is of the view that installation of telemetry system on 7 different sites and flow measurement on 14 sites of Indus Irrigation System was conceived in 2017 to ascertain the actual flow of water which would help in determining its availability during different seasons so that its distribution is accordingly worked out. Funds to the tune of $ 4.5 million from the World Bank were placed at Irsa's disposal for design and installation. Irsa initiated the process of procurement to hire the consultant in 2018. However, Irsa realized that a top-ranked consulting firm evaluated by Irsa itself, was not capable of carrying out the project. It refused to award the contract due to allegedly less satisfactory performance of the top-ranked consulting firm on an identical project under execution in the Punjab Irrigation Department. Despite World Bank advice of October 26, 2019 and direction of the Ministry of Water Resources given in a meeting held on October 28, 2019 to Irsa to expedite the award of contract on merit and execute the project, Irsa, in its meeting held on November 4, 2019 insisted on cancellation of the procurement process and re-bidding. The World Bank did not agree and rejected the proposal of re-bidding on November 14, 2019. On January 9, 2020, Prime Minister, on a note to the Secretary to the Prime Minister, directed the Ministry of Water Resources to look into the bidding process for procurement of consultancy services for installation of telemetry system by Irsa and identify as to whether there was any mismanagement involved in the process. The matter was probed by a committee with detailed terms and conditions.
The committee finalized the report on March 27, 2020. Some of the key findings of the committee are as follows ;(i) the procurement process has been mismanaged by Irsa;(ii) Authority is collectively and individually responsible for mismanagement; (iii) there was no justification for scrapping the procurement process initiated for engagement of consultants;(iv) the committee has held members from Sindh, Punjab and Federal Government and team leader of the WCAP as primarily responsible for the cancellation of procurement process;(v) there is general sense of apathy among the Irsa members for the telemetry project. Any direction and intervention from the Federal Government/ Ministry is perceived as encroachment on their autonomy and; (vi) mis-procurement has resulted in withdrawal of soft loan by the World Bank which has further delayed implementation of the project at a cost to be borne by Irsa from its own resources. Findings of the Inquiry Committee were placed before the Prime Minister on April 20, 2020 who directed to share the findings of the report with Irsa Members for their views/comments and subsequently place the matter along with their responses before the Cabinet. Water Sector Capacity Building and Advisory Project (WCAP) in his detailed response strongly rebutted the assertions of Irsa and its members. He submitted that a contradiction in the Irsa report of May 5, 2020 is very obvious as Irsa on one hand claims that the "intervention made by the Team Leader" WCAP was timely and correct in terms of saving public exchequer from being wasted" while on the other, blamed him for derailing the process.
Ministry of Water Resources has recommended that there is a dire need to weed out the incapacitated incumbent members of Irsa from Punjab, Sindh and Federal Government but also to strengthen the authority as vibrant organisation so as to enable it to achieve its stated objections. And recommended that, the federal cabinet, in terms of stipulations under section 6(a) of Irsa Act, 1992, may consider and approve the following; (i) initiate the process of removal of incumbent Irsa members from Punjab, Sindh and Federal Government on account of their incompetence and failure to discharge their assigned functions; (ii) provincial government of Punjab and Sindh may be requested to recommend afresh for their respective members: (iii) nomination of incumbent Member (Federal) may be withdrawn with immediate effect and; (iv) Section 4(4) of the Irsa Act, 1992 may be amended so that reappointment of members/ extension should be restricted to one time for one year only to obviate chances of retention of above 65 year retires in the Authority which is, otherwise, violation of policy instructions of the Cabinet issued on October 9, 2007.
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