Federal Minister Sheikh Waqas Akram has termed the deal for the procurement of 75 Chinese locomotives 'indecent' and recommended a fresh pact on better terms with the Chinese company in the best national interest. Sheikh, who belongs to Pakistan Muslim League-Q is known for his outspokenness against corruption of the incumbent government despite being part of the cabinet.
Official documents showed that the deal was approved by the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (Ecnec) in its meeting held on December 14, 2005 at a cost of Rs 12.7 billion. Contract agreement of $105.143 million was signed between the government and M/s Dongfang Electric Corporation, China on December 31, 2008. Down payment of $15.771 million comprising 15 per cent of the contract amount was released to the firm in June 2009. Buyer's loan agreement was signed with Export-Import Bank of China on December 14, 2009 and $10.801 million was transferred to China Exim Bank and Sinosure in March 2010.
However, Letter of Credit has not yet been opened because of multiple reasons. On January 4 this year, the federal Cabinet constituted a Committee comprising, Minister for Railways Ghulam Ahmad Bilour, Minister for Inter-Provincial Co-ordination Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, Minister for Interior Rehman Malik, Minster for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan and Minister of State for Human Resource Development (Now Federal Minister for Professional and Technical Training), Sheikh Waqas Akram to examine the case and submit its recommendations to the Cabinet.
Sheikh, in his dissenting note, stated that many "strange" things were observed during the meeting of Cabinet Committee. He informed other committee members that the task of investigating was theirs and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) was only supposed to assist the committee investigate the procurement of locomotives from China. Despite his repeated requests of not sending the case to the FIA, the task was assigned to the FIA.
"In the second meeting when I demanded the minutes of the previous meeting, to my surprise there were no minutes. So far there are no minutes of any meeting," he said in a separate note. According to the federal minister, in the first meeting no officer of Pakistan Railways was present. He was told that they had not been summoned which was strange as the committee was investigating an alleged mega financial scam relating to Pakistan Railways.
The third meeting of the Cabinet Committee was chaired by Sheikh Waqas Akram himself and no other member of the committee attended the meeting. "On my demand Secretary and Managing Director of Pakistan Railways as well as members of the then technical and tender committee (when the deal was clinched) and top brass of Pakistan Railways were summoned. It included retired officers as well," he said.
By then, the committee had received a detailed report from the FIA. Sheikh Akram maintained that the concerned officers from the FIA did not spend enough time to probe the matter, as required for an inquiry of this nature. The Minister further wrote that the third meeting that he convened was of about four to five hours duration in which incompetence, corruption, internal politics, non deliverance and non professionalism were at their peak and shamelessly exposed.
"Though the conclusion of the FIA's report is different from the earlier conclusion of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Railways, the major areas of concern and the basis of investigation are exactly the same," he added. The Minister argues that first, responsibility should be fixed and then those responsible should be brought to book for committing the blunder of procuring the locomotives in gross violation of PPRA rules and making down payment of millions of dollars against the directions of National Assembly's Standing Committee on Railways.
He maintained that the Ministry of Railways inaccurately stated that the Prime Minister condoned the deviation from PPRA rules without the prior permission of the Prime Minister. "I am sure after what I have heard and seen in my own inquiry and documents provided to me that this deal was done in indecent haste," he further added. Official sources told Business Recorder that this scam was part of the Federal Cabinet's agenda held on October 31, 2012, but this item was dropped at the eleventh hour. No reason was given for its withdrawal from the agenda.