‘Scam in the offing’: Controversial LED project lands in court

Petitioners request court to halt the scheme.

ISLAMABAD:

The much-touted light emitting diodes (LED) project to be undertaken by the capital’s top civic authority was challenged before the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday.

The petition was filed by two lawyers to request the court to direct the Capital Development Authority’s (CDA) to halt the costly project to prevent misappropriation of public money. The CDA plans to replace some 65,000 conventional streetlights in the city by LED lights.

The petitioners, Muhammad Naseem and Shajjar Abbas, contended before the court that CDA has awarded the LED contract to a company named Oslo. The company is backed by an influential Islamabad-based businessman, who has close ties to the upper echelon of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party.

The petitioners maintained that the Planning Commission’s Central Development Working Party during a meeting in October, 2010,  had rejected the project and marked some observations on the proposal including on the unit price of a LED light. The financial rate of return of the project  was not favourable which the CDA did not consider, Abbas said. The civic authority was advised to consult the law ministry to ensure transparency because Transparency International (TI) also expressed concern over the opaque manner in which the contract was awarded, he added.

According to TI, CDA is procuring LEDs for Rs150,000 per piece which is excessive, considering the lights are available for Rs20,000. The entire cost of the project cannot be more than Rs1.36 billion if calculated at the lower rate for the lights.

However, the contract was awarded for Rs6.5 billion which will burden the exchequer as the Asian Development Bank had refused to finance the project. The petitioners argued that National Accountability Bureau had also raised objections on the tendering process of the project.

The petitioners requested the court to direct CDA chairman, who is named as a respondent in the petition, not to take any steps to pursue this project. The case has been fixed for Wednesday (today) before the IHC chief justice with an objection that the copy of the petition was faint.

The project was also discussed by the Senate Committee on the Cabinet Division, in a recent meeting, during which committee chairman Shahid Hussain Bugti referred to it as a “scam in the offing”.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 23^rd, 2012.