A parliamentary panel was informed on Friday by the officials of Auditor General Pakistan (AGP) that the contractor of Nai Gaj Dam had provided fake bank guarantee to get contract of the dam in 2012. The AGP officials said that not only fake bank guarantee of Rs 3.88 billion was provided by the contractor but also the contract was awarded to the company in violation of the PC-1.

The officials of AGP and Ministry of Water Resources revealed this while giving a briefing to the subcommittee of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) which met here under the chairmanship of Senator Sherry Rehman to discuss and review audit paras of Ministry of Water Resources.

Senator Syed Mushahid Hussain said that the case should be sent to National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for investigation as why the authorities awarded the contract to such a company. The panel also pointed out that as a delay in the completion of the Nai Gaj dam, the construction cost has escalated from Rs 17 billion to Rs 47.7 billion.

Secretary Water Resources Muhammad Ashraf said that almost 50 percent work on the project has been completed but revised PC-1 of the project has been pending with the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (ECNEC) for months.

The committee was informed that the project, which started in September 2009, had been delayed due to changes in its design and financial problems. The chairperson committee directed the NAB to investigate the case and submit the details of finding to PAC within 100 days.

The committee members, while expressing serious anger over the poor preparedness of the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) in connection with audit paras, were unanimous that first information report (FIR) against the contractor of the Nai Gaj dam project should have been registered but the WAPDA officials as usual didn't take interest in the case.

The senior official explained that there was a stalemate between the federal and Sindh governments over who would pay the difference between the original cost of Rs 16.9 billion in 2009 and the Rs 26.23 billion cost in PC-1, which was revised in 2012. The official explained that it was the understanding of the federal government that financial delays were on the part of the Sindh government.

The meeting was told that in the revised PC-1 2018, the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) included additional components such as a power house, project colony, access roads, cost of spillways and pipeline to the Manchhar Lake, increasing the cost of completion of the dam to Rs 46.73bn. It has been 10 months since the second PC-1 was submitted for approval by the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (ECNEC).

"The ENCEC has decided that the federal and Sindh governments should share the escalated costs equally. However, the Sindh government insists that the federal government should bear the increased costs entirely," the officials informed the committee. "However, the Nai Gaj project has been revised on account of deferred payments after which completion cost increased and secondly due to changes in its design. The Sindh government has no stake, influence or interference in either of these items. The deferred payments should have been streamlined by the federal government after approval of the PC-1.

The officials said that the stance of the Sindh government had been submitted to the Supreme Court, which has taken notice of the issue. They further added that the Sindh government is ready to contribute its share for land acquisition and security.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2019