KARACHI: The Sindh government spends over Rs 11.503 million annually to hire thousands of carpets and dixies (daigs) for the death anniversaries of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Shaheed Benazir Bhutto and former Jamiat Ulama-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) senator (late) Khalid Mehmood Soomro, sources told Pakistan Today.
Interestingly, sources added that the finance department releases huge funds to the Larkana deputy commissioner for all kinds of arrangements, and the funds are in turn expended by city’s senior superintendent police (SSP).
Annually, Larkana district administration hires 16,250 carpets at Rs80 per day on death anniversary of Shaheed Muhtarma Benazir Bhutto, Khalid Mehmood Soomro and birthday of Shaheed Muhtarma Benazir Bhutto while an expenditure of Rs 10.5 million used to be incurred on feeding charges of total 4,200 dixies (daigs).
According to the sources, as per Rule 29(3) of Sindh Public Procurement Regulatory (SPPR) 2010 rules, for the purposes of Part-II of the Rules, bidders shall include all those contractors or suppliers and providers of services related thereto or consultants that are registered or incorporated in Pakistan, irrespective of the nationality of their owners and of their professional staff.
However, the carpets were used to be supplied by an unregistered supplier, sanction orders were split up to avoid the tender process, and same invoices were claimed in different bills.
Furthermore, for the feeding charges, Rule-23 of Sindh Financial Rules, Volume-I says, every payment including repayment of money previously lodged with government for whatever purpose must be supported by the voucher setting forth full and clear particulars of the claim.
However, the Larkana SSP maintains no record of officials available on duties, their belt number and strength on papers, sources added.
