ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) while conducting complaint verification has allegedly found violations in the award of billion rupees worth Lahore-Karachi motorway’s contract, it has been learnt reliably.
Taking notice on a complaint filed by the Transparency International Pakistan (TIP) in July 2016 regarding the allegations of collusion in award of the project, the NAB had earlier authorised complaint verification into alleged mis-procurement by officers of the National Highway Authority (NHA), including award of Karachi-Lahore Motorway Project to the China Railway 20 Bureau and ZKB of Pakistan at a cost of Rs 148.65 billion, thus causing a loss of Rs 14 billion to the national exchequer.
Rawalpindi NAB’s director general was directed to complete complaint verification as per law and submit a report.
According to sources, the bureau has conducted complaint verification on the complaint of the Transparency International and found corrupt practices in the award of the contract.
NAB Chairman Justice (r) Javed Iqbal on Saturday ordered the Rawalpindi NAB’s DG to conduct a detailed inquiry against the NHA management into the award of the contract. According to NAB, the bureau chief further directed that the project should not be delayed owing to the probe.
Earlier, Transparency International Pakistan (TIP) had filed a complaint in the bureau regarding allegations of collusion in the award of the project by the NHA to the joint venture of the China Railway 20 Bureau and ZKB of Pakistan.
It is relevant to mention that TIP had reportedly requested the NAB chairman in its letter to probe into the allegations and take action against officers and beneficiaries in accordance with the NAO 1999.
It was revealed that the NHA was trying to manipulate the Public Procurement Rules 2004 and PEC standard bidding documents for larger works, which are mandatory for NHA to abide by while processing any tender.
Sources in NHA said that China Railway 20 Bureau Group fulfils the required prequalification criteria. As per laid down procedure in bidding documents provided, the contract was duly endorsed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China and countersigned by counsellor embassy of Pakistan in Beijing.
On the basis of these documents, CR20G were pre-qualified. The other pre-qualified firms also submitted documents with similar authentication which were accepted, the documents stated.
It is worth mentioning that Lahore-Karachi motorway project is a part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). The NHA invited bids for the project in August and awarded it to the joint venture of China Railway 20 Bureau and ZKB of Pakistan at a cost of Rs148.654bn and issued a letter of intent (LoI) to the two firms on Dec 8, 2017.
It is believed that the NHA could have saved Rs24bn if the project, which is being funded through the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP), would have been awarded according to the instruction of bidders (IoB) or clauses of the contract.
Moreover, one of the alleged violations of contract rules was that the successful bidders had submitted separate bid securities with two different names, but not in the name of the JV even though Instructions to bidders’ clause 15.1 of the bid documents said: “Each bidder shall furnish, as part of his bid, a bid security of an amount not less than Rs500 million in Pak rupees or an equivalent amount in any freely convertible currency. In case of a joint venture, bid security shall be submitted with the name of the proposed JV accordingly.”
Another clause of the contract said: “Primarily, the bidders are not allowed to lower levels of profile and that bidders are advised to follow minimum specified design requirements at bidding stage.”
One more alleged anomaly in the award of the contract is that the successful bidders have submitted an undertaking that they will increase quantities during the progress of the project, but the NHA cannot entertain any such request and this facility has not been offered to any other bidder.
