Procurment law violations: Suspended CDA officials face further probe

Environment wing staffers accused of giving green light to illegal single-bid contracts.

ISLAMABAD:

Award of contracts for development and maintenance works in violation of the rules is nothing new at the Capital Development Authority.

The authority recently busted a “gang of officials” headed by an environment wing director which had managed to manipulate at least four contracts worth millions of rupees.

On September 25, the CDA chairman suspended five environment wing officials — Director Irfan Azeem Khan, Landscape Deputy Director Asghar Ali Zardari, Accounts Officer Safdar Saleem, Divisional Accounts Officer Farhan Sikandar and Cashier Farooq Butt — after it was determined that these officials were involvement in issuing maintenance work tenders to favourites in violation of Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules.

The four contracts did not appear on the PPRA website or at the CDA’s own official website — a mandatory requirement to ensure healthy competition prior to awarding contracts and to reduce the cost through competitive bidding.

The contracts include construction of a boundary wall at Ladies Park at Sector G-6/1-4, development and maintenance of Children Park in Prime Minister Staff Colony, maintenance of public toilets at Rose and Jasmine Gardens and provision and installation of steel grills around a public park in Sector G-6/3.

A two-member inquiry committee has also been formed to further probe into the issue and to initiate disciplinary action against the accused.

The preliminary inquiry findings, available with The Express Tribune, show that the development and maintenance contracts were approved in the annual budget plan for the previous financial year.

The findings says that though these work contracts did not appear in the national media or the CDA or PPRA websites, the officials accused of wrongdoing claimed that all codal formalities including advertisement of these four contracts were completed.

The findings also state that the tenders were issued by these officers to contractors who have close relationships with them, and in each contract, three to four tender forms were issued to give an impression that tenders were open under free and fair competition.

It adds that the audit officer, who is the financial controller and is empowered to scrutinise the record, failed to discharge his duties by stopping the process and instead opened the tenders, which establishes his connivance in the fraudulent practice.

Due to non-advertisement of these tenders, PPRA rules clearly state that this practice would be declared fraudulent.

Acting on preliminary inquiry findings, CDA Environment Member Mustafain Kazmi stopped the process and initiated a detailed inquiry and disciplinary action against the officials involved. The move may have saved the CDA further embarrassment through litigation from the contractors and also saved the authority some money.

The inquiry committee, headed by QS Director Ejaz Siddiqui, has been directed to finalise and present its findings with the office of the chairman within the next three weeks.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 1^st, 2014.