Concern expressed over ignoring of tendering rules

ABBOTABAD: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly has taken serious notice of the ignoring of prescribed procedures for creating open competition among construction entrepreneurs. It was also looking at spending an amount of Rs86.43 million to carry out construction and repair works of certain VIP buildings through selected contractors.

In its meeting on Thursday, the committee ordered the works department to strictly follow the open tendering procedure in the future when utilising public funds.

During the meeting, the audit reports of communication and works (C&W), irrigation and police departments were considered and various legal points were raised regarding reported irregularities in the spending of the departments.

Members of the committee Abdul Akbar Khan, Saqibullah Khan Chamkani, Mukhtiar Ali Khan advocate, Malik Muhammad Tahmash Khan, Abdul Shakur Khan, Syed Muhammad Ali Bacha and Zayad Akram Durrani actively participated in the discussion.

They pointed out several procedural and financial irregularities in the discussed year in the Provincial Building Maintenance Cell of the C&W department, Paharpur Irrigation Division, D.I. Khan, Malakand Irrigation Cirlcle, Swat, Capital City Police Office and DIG Police Office Peshawar, AIG Telecommunication Office, and District Police Office, Charsada.

Reviewing the audit objections made against the C&W department regarding the spending of over three million rupees on the repair of Civil Quarters, NC Flats and Gulshan Rehman Colony Flats, the committee described these expenditures against the provisions of the PC-I, and ordered departmental inquiries to find out who ordered the ignoring of procedures. The committee asked the department to submit the inquiry reports within one week for consideration of the committee during its ongoing month-long meeting.

The committee also ordered the early completion of 165 under-construction housing units at Nasapa Payah near Peshawar. The committee expressed its concern over the information that a huge amount of Rs70 million has so far been spent on this project but the deserving people had now been waiting a long time for the project’s completion.

Expressing outrage over the theft of two government vehicles, worth Rs.2.2 million, of the irrigation department, the committee termed the findings of the departmental inquiry regarding this unsatisfactory.

Abdul Akbar Khan, who chaired the second session of the meeting, observed that the inquiry report was based just on statements of the drivers and entitled officers while the inquiry officers did not bother to investigate the incident on their own. The committee, therefore, ordered a re-inquiry into the matter. In this connection, Saqibullah Khan Chamkani drew the committee’s attention towards general misuse and unauthorised use of government vehicles and stressed the need for taking strict measures to control such practices.

Discussing audit objections of the police department, the committee directed that the department should improve its tendering system regarding the repair and maintenance of its vehicles and strictly adhere to the relevant procedures in this regard.

Speaking at the meeting, PAC Chairman Karamatullah Khan reiterated the committee’s resolve to continue the accountability of the government departments. He made it clear that the committee was not targeting any individual, but the prime purpose of the audit reviews is to improve the financial discipline of the provincial government. Emphasising on the careful use of public money, he said that any misuse or irregular use of the public exchequer must not be tolerated.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 16^th, 2010.