Chairman, National Highway Authority (NHA), Muhammad Ali Gardezi, on Tuesday told the Pubic Accounts Committee (PAC) that Pakistan had suffered Rs 100 billion loss due to Nato supplies to Afghanistan via Pakistan but not a single penny was paid to it for repairing the damaged highways.
-- The PAC met here under the chairmanship of Nadeem Afzal Gondal.
-- Members of the committee Abid Sher Ali, Noor Alam Khan, Sardar Ayaz
---- Sadiq, Muhammad Pervaiz Malik, Hamid Yar Hiraj, Syed Ghulam Mustafa Shah, Saeed Ahmed Zafar, Yasmeen Rehman, Rukhsana Bangish, Noor-Ul-Haq Qadri and Shahnaz Sheikh attended the meeting. The PAC Chairman was of the view that former President General Pervaiz Musharraf Retd did it on just one call. Principal Accounting Officer (PAO) said that it was an open cheque given to them and "now we are considering some better way to resolve the issue with Nato".
Discussing the Audit Para regarding recovery of Rs 368.168 million fine money from NHA, the PAC ordered that all institutions should work according to their limitations and gave three months time to settle the issue. The Principal Accounting Officer (PAO) said the NHA was gradually clearing the backlog and Rs 116 million had been deposited to clear the outstanding dues of the National Highway and Motorway Police. He said that it was an administrative decision which was approved by then Cabinet Division and added that daily Rs 0.8 million are being recovered, out of which 50 percent are spent on reward & welfare and 50 per cent on road safety and awareness campaign.
He said that rules need to be amended for road safety and we are trying to one time waiver from Prime Minister. Chairman NHA said that approximately in six months they would settle the issue with NH&MP and check on formula 25:75. IG NH&MP Wajid Ali Durrani said that Motorway Police did not receive any penny and we receive 50 per cent from joint account.
PAO said that there was no mechanism and NHA has to pay Rs 3.8 billion to motorway police and NHA had not paid a single penny. Discussing another para regarding irregular payment of Rs 3.926 million House Rent Ceiling, the committee directed that the beneficiary should not be given all benefits at the time of their retirement. Inspector General NH&MP said that the matter is in the court and we are trying to expedite the case in court.
PAO said that Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) has to pay Rs 6.5 million to NHA which is used for maintenance of roads. Member of the committee Saeed Ahmed Zaffar said that NHA failed to settle Daewoo issue and NHA performance is decreasing day by day. Chairman NHA said that two service areas of Bhera Interchange had been vacated from Daewoo Express and added that 15000 vehicles passes from that toll plaza daily.
Noor Alam Khan said that FWO took the E-tag bidding by force and added that now corruption starts in Motorway Police. PAO said that FWO and NLC are occupying 38 toll plazas and they (FWO-NLC) give the excuse that they were holding these toll plazas for security concerns.
Chairman PAC said that they have no authority to occupy toll plazas on the pretext of security concerns and added that they should work under the law of land. Discussing the audit para regarding non-recovery of Rs 542.516 million Rent of Machinery, the committee observed that PPRA rules were not implemented in letter and spirit and ordered that every thing should be done under PPRA rules.
The committee also ordered NHA to submit report within two weeks time as to why the same contract was awarded twice to the same contractor. Expressing its displeasure over inquiries held on the matter, the committee said that new inquiry should be held. The committee also sent explanation call to then Inquiry Officer Basit Khan and said that he should come and explain why he had not completed inquiry.
The committee gave one month to NHA to fix responsibility and make recovery. PAO said that it was 2001 and there were no PPRA rules at that time. An Official from the Audit said that the first Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) was not held properly in June 1999 and both tenders were done illegally. PAO said that the contract was given to M/S Hasnain Construction Company both the time.