Irregularities surface in public works dept

The Senate Standing Committee on Housing and Works has been informed that alleged irregularities worth millions of rupees had occurred during the tenure of PTI in the PWD projects in tribal districts of Mohmand, Bajaur and Khyber.

The upper house panel met under the chairmanship of Senator Haji Hidayatullah Khan on Monday.

During the session, the committee discussed the issue of alleged irregularities in the SDG programmes of the PWD projects in Mohmand, Bajaur and Khyber.

Senator Hilalur Rehman, who is the chairman of Senate Standing Committee on Safron, maintained that the officials of the PWD had prepared PC-I of the projects in Mohmand without a visit, adding that they did not have NOC of any of the schemes.

He said a tender of Rs480 million was opened by the PWD and that the work order was issued a day later.

He said PWD used a pipe in the project which did not exist in Pakistan. The senator alleged that the officials of the PWD came to his house and offered him bribe.

“A mafia is sitting in the PWD. They award projects to two or three contractors. PWD executed a job of three million feet in three days in Shabqadar which is beyond imagination,” Rehman said.

He said PWD had committed a “big theft” and was “weakening the foundations of the country”.

The senator said time and again he had informed the DG PWD that the officials working for the department were involved in corruption but they continued to work on their jobs.

Rehman said the DG PWD told him that NAB was conducting an inquiry and that the matter was in the court.

The DG PWD said that the tender was opened on March 22 and the work order was received on March 26. He said the cost of entire job was Rs475 million and a payment of Rs330 million was made on April 3.

Senator Saifullah Abro objected to the development saying that the pace with which the tender, work order and funds were issued was unprecedented. He asked the housing secretary to take action on the matter.

DG PWD informed the panel that the executive engineer was suspended in the case.

Senator Rehman questioned whether anyone could install a pipe of 2.6 million feet in a day, adding that PN-16 pipe was not available in Pakistan.

The committee was told that Maaz, who was a student of BSc, was awarded contract of Rs2 billion. It was said that Rs1.26 billion were recovered from Maaz’s account when the case was sent to the anti-graft watchdog and NAB had frozen the remaining amount of Rs680 million.

The Senate body was apprised that Ahmed and Co was owned by the son of a senior official of the NAB and that their chief engineer was also involved in the alleged irregularities.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 8^th, 2022.