Involving the ICJ?: What about money the govt owes us, ask RPPs
NAB hires accountants to determine whether govt defaults on payments to RPPs are a greater liability.
LAHORE:
After all Rental Power Project (RPP) contracts were declared illegal by the Supreme Court, some of the companies in charge of the projects have brought in a new twist to the case.
Sources told The Express Tribune that after being pressurised by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to return billions of rupees to the government after the cancellation of the contracts, several of the companies involved in RPPs have raised the question – what about the money the government owes us?
The companies claim that the government has defaulted on billions on account of electricity and fuel charges, sources added.
Since the NAB investigators have only been concerned with the recovery of money paid to the RPPs by the government but not vice versa, the companies, a number of which are foreign, have threatened not only to wind up investment in Pakistan but also to approach the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
As a result, NAB has now decided to hire the services of a chartered accountant who can reconcile the balance sheets and other records in order to figure out the answer to the vital question: Does the liability lie on the side of the government, or the RPPs?
During the probe, a NAB investigation team member revealed that the RPPs representative also said that the government was bound to pay rent for even those units which had been closed, because the reason for their closure was non-payment by the government in the first place.
NAB officials familiar with the development of the Supreme Court case, while talking to The Express Tribune, said that the role of government functionaries involved in the RPPs fiasco would be determined during the course of the investigation.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 19th, 2012.
After all Rental Power Project (RPP) contracts were declared illegal by the Supreme Court, some of the companies in charge of the projects have brought in a new twist to the case.
Sources told The Express Tribune that after being pressurised by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to return billions of rupees to the government after the cancellation of the contracts, several of the companies involved in RPPs have raised the question – what about the money the government owes us?
The companies claim that the government has defaulted on billions on account of electricity and fuel charges, sources added.
Since the NAB investigators have only been concerned with the recovery of money paid to the RPPs by the government but not vice versa, the companies, a number of which are foreign, have threatened not only to wind up investment in Pakistan but also to approach the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
As a result, NAB has now decided to hire the services of a chartered accountant who can reconcile the balance sheets and other records in order to figure out the answer to the vital question: Does the liability lie on the side of the government, or the RPPs?
During the probe, a NAB investigation team member revealed that the RPPs representative also said that the government was bound to pay rent for even those units which had been closed, because the reason for their closure was non-payment by the government in the first place.
NAB officials familiar with the development of the Supreme Court case, while talking to The Express Tribune, said that the role of government functionaries involved in the RPPs fiasco would be determined during the course of the investigation.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 19th, 2012.