Caretakers set to splurge Rs3b on shoddy schemes

Will approve upgrade of JACC in Rs372m; Rs2.6b on increasing production of pulses

ISLAMABAD: The caretaker government is all set to approve two shoddy schemes of Rs3 billion in the name of improving communications and enhancing the production of pulses, but project documents suggest that public funds could be misappropriated due to procurements at highly exorbitant rates.

One project worth Rs2.6 billion, aimed at promoting research to enhance productivity in pulses, falls in the domain of provinces under the 18th Amendment. The authorities plan to procure 16 Toyota Vigos and single cabin vehicles at a cost of Rs54 million under the guise of helping farmers.

Similarly, the caretaker government is going to upgrade the cost of Jawaid Azfar Computer Centre of Ministry of Planning to Rs372 million. But the increase is primarily for the procurement of computers and laptops, at rates that are over 100% higher than the prevailing market prices.



Both these projects are on the agenda of the Central Development Working Party (CDWP) meeting, which the caretaker government has called while exceeding its constitutional mandate. The CDWP will take up about one-and-a-half dozen development projects that cost Rs709 billion.

Caretaker Finance Minister Dr Shamshad Akhtar will chair the CDWP meeting, in which she is expected to give her nod for these highly expensive procurements.

The CDWP will take up the Rs372.1-million project for upgrading the Jawaid Azfar Computer Centre (JACC). The entire increase in cost is due to the new procurements of hardware, which are not covered in the earlier approved PC-I of the scheme, showed the documents.

Sources in the planning ministry said despite the fact that the ministry gave tenders for these procurements last month, there was no provision for them. The planning ministry wants to procure about 150 computers and laptops at rates that are far higher than market rates.



Sources in the ministry said that some officers wanted to mint money from this procurement.  The project documents that will be tabled before the CDWP on Monday showed that the ministry wants to procure 100 core i7 laptops at per unit price of Rs165,000.

But the prevailing market rates of this classification laptops range from Rs55,000 to Rs77,000, according to the people who trade in the computer business. The planning ministry also wants to procure an additional 50 core i7 category desktops at unit price of Rs95,000, showed the documents.

However, the market rates of this product is in the range of Rs50,000 to Rs75,000, depending upon the manufacturer, sources said.

The ministry also wants to procure 30 Laser Printers at Rs35,000 per unit.

The JACC project had been approved in 2006 at a cost of Rs76.9 million. Due to the change in scope, the project was revised by the CDWP first 2009, then 2012, 2014 and March 2016. The next revision will be the fifth one.



The stated purpose of the project is to “develop and strengthen information technology capacity within the Planning Commission and the Ministry of Planning, Development and Reform”.

The project is still being funded from the development budget, even though almost all of its activities are non-developmental in nature. The technical appraiser wing of the ministry has recommended transferring the project to non-development budget, “as early as possible”.

The planning ministry has also kept Rs5.4 million in allocation of the project for “training, conferences and workshops”.

Pulses scheme

The caretaker government also plans to approve the Rs2.6-billion project for enhancing production of pulses.

But the breakup of the scheme’s cost shows that roughly one-tenth of the cost will be spent on procuring expensive vehicles, 16% for payment of salaries and honorariums, and less than half on the procurement of seeds.

After the 18th Amendment in the Constitution, agriculture is a provincial subject and the federal government can only provide policy advice, which is also not binding on federating units.

“Project objectives are not very clear and it is needed to tell how much production will be increased every year,” according to a critical appraiser of the planning ministry of the project. The whole idea of the project emanates from the high import bill of pulses, but financial and economic analysis has not been done at all for this proposal to explain how expenditure of over Rs2 billion from the public exchequer will be justified, it added.

Local production is insufficient to meet local demands of pulses. To fill the supply-demand gap, reliance on import has been increasing. The import bill for pulses is around $1 billion per annum.

Under the garb of improving pulses production, Rs22.5 million will be spent on buying nine Toyota single cabin vehicles and 7 Toyota Vigos at a cost of Rs31.5 million. The total expenses on transportation have been estimated at Rs229 million.  A sum of Rs51.3 million will be paid to the project employees as honorariums and Rs70 million on paying rents.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 15^th, 2018.

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