Ministries of Water & Power and Finance have so far expressed their inability to cooperate with the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in calculating the exact losses of Nandipur power project, Pakistan Today has learnt.
Although the NAB could not establish the part of PPP’s last government in cost escalation of Nandipur power project, yet it has established that Rs14billion loss to the project is because of cost escalation happened in the tenure of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz. And, the NAB Rawalpindi which is currently engaged in examining unnecessary delay in Nandipur power project has requested the NAB headquarter to further investigate the matter. “Inquiry may be upgraded into investigation,” official documents said.
Documents made available with Pakistan Today disclose that Water & Power Ministry (MoW&P) has also shown its inability to the NAB in a calculation of exact loss of Nandipur power project. The Ministry of Finance was requested by the NAB for loss calculation but not avail. Even the commission constituted by the Supreme Court of Pakistan has stated in its report that the commission was also handicapped in the absence of expert opinion on the subject; therefore, no actual figure of loss could be determined. However, the NAB has completed its initial inquiry into the allegation of unnecessary delay in execution of Nandipur power project causing a loss of Rs113billion.
It may be mention here that the NAB has also requested AG office for losses pointed by their office in a subject project. AG office replied that special audit is in a process and the DAC will be held shortly to firm up observations. Furthermore, a special study is also conducted by AG office. One of the concluding points of the report is that the main reason for cost escalation of Rs8billion in revised PC-1 is the prolonged holding of a legal opinion by the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs.
The Supreme Court of Pakistan on October 26, 2011, constituted a commission (comprising of one man Justice Retired Rahmat Hussain Jefferi) after a petition filed by incumbent water & power minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif on October 5, 2011. The court mandated the commission to determine whether there is any negligence on the part of executive authorities which has caused delay in completion of both the projects; if so, how much loss has been caused to the national exchequer in terms of opportunity costs and other losses, and who is responsible for causing delay in the completion of documents?
The commission submitted its report on April 9, 2012. The Commission’s report said,” There is negligence on the part of executive authorities of the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, which delayed the completion of the project.
