The top brass of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is using delay tactics to postpone investigation against a private firm that compiled electoral rolls in 2007 with massive entries of bogus voters, and the ECP officials who allegedly received millions of rupees in kickbacks for awarding the Rs 1 billion contract to the firm in question.
“For awarding contracts, some influential officers of the ECP received almost Rs 20 million in kickbacks,” a source in the ECP told Pakistan Today on Saturday. The source said that the scam had come to the notice of the ECP top brass in 2007, but to save their skin they kept mum over the issue. The National Database and Registration Authority recently exposed the presence of around 37 million dubious voters registered in the ECP’s 2007 electoral rolls.
After this shocking revelation, the ECP secretary had lodged a complaint with the chief election commissioner seeking action against the firm responsible, but no action has been taken so far on the complaint. “Yes, we have lodged a reference with the CEC against a company that compiled the 2007 electoral rolls and charged almost Rs 1 billion,” Secretary Ishtiak Ahmed told Pakistan Today.
Federal audit authorities, in the latest audit report, have also revealed that the private company was awarded the contract in violation of Public Procurement Rules (PPR) of 2004.
