The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has ordered an enquiry in the Clean Drinking Water for All (CDWA) project undertaken by the so that officials allegedly involved in irregularities and corruption can be brought to justice for causing losses to the national exchequer.
NAB had received a complaint alleging massive corruption in the awarding of tender of CDWA by the officers and officials of the Ministry of Special Initiatives in 2005.
It was also alleged that officers/officials of the ministry were bribed by six companies for awarding the project’s tender. However, later the contract came to halt and no further work has been done till now.
The CDWA initiative was undertaken in February 2005 by Ministry of Special Initiatives at a cost of Rs 999.541 million after many revisions of the project’s PC-1.
Per the project, 445 plants were to be installed but work orders were issued for only 406 plants out of which 108 plants were completed and functional, 124 plants were completed but non-functional and 102 plants were incomplete. There were several other irregularities in the project including no feasibility study prior to the project, lack of consultative process and no maintenance contract etc.
Moreover, a taskforce on CDWA was constituted on August 4, 2005. After many revisions, the PC-1 was approved by ECNEC in October 2007 at a cost of Rs 15,843.356 million. A total of 6,626 plants were to be installed but only 294 plants were installed.