AGP points to irregularities in BTT, BRT

Serious irregularities, including poor planning and wastage of public funds, has been detected in two of the mega projects of the province, including the massive tree plantation and bus service.

The report, by the Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP), covered the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government’s projects of Billion Tree Tsunami (BTT) and the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) in Peshawar.

In the BTT project, the AGP noted that forests were divided into three zones, however, their closures were de-notified because the Provincial Monitoring Unit (PMU) did not properly inform and train its field officers to deal with the closures and keep the forests safe.

This created conflicts between the forest department and field officers.
Because the areas closed off comprise around 60% of the project area, it put a massive question mark over the project.

Moreover, the report noted that the process of allotting nurseries to private growers was not transparent, further, many of the forest observers secured more money than what was allocated under the PC-I of the project.

The nurseries and seed production facilities were also uncertified. The government also failed to prepare a feasibility study for carrying out the project, identify how the project will be implemented or mode of payments.

While a three-pronged process for monitoring the project was devised, it was not adequately communicated to the monitoring field officers in time nor were adequate appointments made to implement the monitoring process.

The report said that the ultimate objective of the project, to make a greener Pakistan, is still quite a distance away from being achieved.
The AGP report affixed responsibilities on the planning and development department.

On the BRT project, the AGP report stated that it suffered from poor planning.

Echoing concerns of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the report said that it was announced with undue haste and irrational completion dates ahead of the July 2018 elections under immense political pressure. The engineering design of the project was poor as well.

Moreover, civil works for pedestrians was completed without any proper engineering design at all. Other poor engineering decisions and revisions led to ballooning cost.

The haste to benefit in the 2018 elections, the quality of the project was impacted to the point that some sections had to be dismantled and rebuilt later.

The feeder and main routes were so narrow that two buses cannot run simultaneously, while scores of stations were constructed right in front of shops, houses and streets