Faulty planning, mismanagement and corruption by Pakistan Railways authorities have led to the failure of the track rehabilitation project that remains incomplete even after a lapse of four years. The findings of a report compiled by the Prime Minister’s Inspection Commission (PMIC), a copy of which is available with Pakistan Today, reflect that the project was launched in 2001 and was to be completed by 2007 but to date only 68 percent of the work has been completed and there is no hope the project would be completed by 2015. The Railways Department conducted this project on its own and no attempt was made to outsource the activities either to national or international contractors. A total of 12 project directors were changed during the past nine years by top officials, which reflects massive favouritism or incompetence at the highest level.
However, the incompetence, favouritism and lack of commitment have led to such a long delay in the track rehab process. PMIC Chairman Malik Amjad Ali Noon, who conducted hectic visits of all areas under project and completed the report, says there was no hope that the track rehab project would complete even after four more years. Track rehabilitation: As far as the financial progress is concerned, the cumulative expenditure until August 2 was Rs 7834.296 million, inclusive of the FEC expenditure of Rs 2350.516 million.
The PMIC worked out the modalities an action plan to implement the directions of the prime minister, in consultation with the Planning and Development Division and Ministry of Finance and inter-alia, identified Ministry of Railways PSDP project “Track Rehabilitation (Rehabilitation Plan)-Pakistan Railways Network (2001-07)” for the purpose.
The revised project was approved by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) for Rs 9405.366 million on 31-12-2005. The work was scheduled to be completed by June 2007. The inordinate delay in the project implementation was due to ill-conceived planning by the Ministry of Railways’ officials. Despite approval of the reduced scope and cost, the project could not be completed by the initial target date of June 2007.
With only 68 percent of progress, no completion date is indicated. It appears that the Planning and Development (P&D) Division did not prudently scrutinise the details of the project before recommending approval. Moreover, the scope of the project was substantially changed. Detailed backable technical and financial feasibilities were not conducted by the authority and the project was conceived on internal pre-feasibility level document. Accordingly, technical, financial and economic feasibilities of the project were not established.
Internal consensus on scope of work was not achieved before submission of the project for approval. More than Rs 10 billion was released for the project against actual expenditure of Rs 7.6 billion which reflected massive corruption. Moreover, there is no clue where the rest of the amount was spent.
A total of 12 project directors were changed during the last nine years. In the past, such project used to be implemented by Regional Directorates. However, this project was implemented under a centralised mechanism due to which Pakistan Railways itself is facing problems. All the work on the project is being done by the Railways Department on its own. No attempt was made to outsource the activities either to national or international contractors. The PMICs detailed observations have resulted in considerable progress as indicated by the status report received on August 2.
The progress still remains slow and the Ministry of Railways needs to reassess the administrative and financial aspects of the project.
Faulty planning, corruption leads to criminal delay in rail track rehab project
