Perils of wandering into the ‘private’ domain

Gross violations committed by the CDA in the award of contract for executing and operating Art and Craft Village.

ISLAMABAD:

A Senate panel on Tuesday took strong exception to the violations committed by the Capital Development Authority in awarding the contract of the Art and Craft Village to a non-government organisation.

The Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet which met at the parliament house under its chairman Senator Shahid Bugti questioned the role of of former CDA boss Kamran Lashari in the whole process.

The lawmakers asked the incumbent chairman of the civic agency to remove the lacunas and financial irregularities from the multi-billion project.

Official documents in evidence to the infringements committed in awarding the contract was presented before the Senate body.

CDA Chairman Imtiaz Inayat Elahi told the committee that he was not aware of the irregularities but assured the senators that before the next meeting of the committee he would remove all anomalies. The chairman also said that he was not taking any interest in the project because of the media criticism. The project is already engulfed in controversies, he said.

The contract to execute and operate the project was given to the Indus Heritage Trust (IHT) under the public-private partnership.

The representatives of Sungi Foundation, major partner of IHT, briefed the committee about the project but the committee did not make the presentation a part of the proceedings, saying that the CDA is the first one to be held responsible for any violation.

Sungi Foundation chairperson Samina Khan told The Express Tribune that IHT was running the Art and Craft Village on voluntary basis and there was no vested interest involved in this project. The convener of the committee invited the attention of the CDA chairman towards the Expression of Interest (EoI), published on August 10, 2004 highlighting the terms and conditions for the prequalification of the contract. He said that the last date for the submission of the EoI was August 25, 2004 whereas the IHT got itself registered with the Joint Sub-Registrar Islamabad on August 21, 2004. “This creates doubts that CDA inked the agreement to serve the interests of some individuals,” the convener remarked.

The committee members observed that despite not meeting even a single requirement of the EoI, the trust was awarded the contract. Bugti said that the basic agreement was executed for Saidpur Village but later on, the site was changed to Shakarparian for which a new add for a new tender was required, which was not followed. The cost of the PC-1 was also increased from Rs112 million to Rs333 million.

The committee members observed that as per CDA record 95 per cent work on the project was completed while Rs100 million were spared for the remaining five per cent of work in the revised PC-1. All of these factors make the deal and the execution dubious,” said an official.

“Another grave violation committed in this case is that the IHT was asked by CDA to submit a draft agreement, which should actually have been prepared by the CDA’s law department,” the convener said.

He also referred to the legal and financial review report of IHT prepared by chartered accountants Anjum Asim and Shahid Rehman, pointing out a number of irregularities.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 14^th, 2011.