NAB raises 22 objections on the LED project

ISLAMABAD:

The Rs6.5 billion LED streetlights project has been slapped with a number of objections raised by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

“We raised 22 objections on the tendering process as well as CDA’s objectives behind this multibillion-rupee project,” said NAB Spokesperson Zafar Iqbal on Thursday.

The objections come at a time when the civic body, having finalised all project modalities, is waiting for the funding to come through. Under the project, the CDA will replace about 65,000 conventional bulbs in the streetlights with LEDs.

The objections were raised in a meeting, where CDA officials gave a “detailed” presentation on the project. Iqbal said, “We told them that their tendering process was shaky and [the project] cannot move ahead until all these observations are addressed.”

The project was to be funded from a loan from the Asian development Bank (ADB). But after ADB backed out, CDA decided to use its own resources to execute the project.

The CDA decided that the contractor would put up 75% of the project cost and the authority will give 25%. For its share, the CDA requested the federal government to arrange funding, which itself is objectionable, said the NAB spokesperson.

“The federal government itself is short of funds and the CDA’s own financial condition is also unstable; so it is questionable as to how the CDA would pay back such a huge amount,” Iqbal said.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 18^th, 2012.