The issue of corruption in RPPs was first taken up by the office of the auditor general and thoroughly investigated for three years. ILLUSTRATION: JAMAL KHURSHID
The auditor-general of Pakistan has accused the Public Accounts Committee of “sweeping the government’s corruption reports under the carpet,” which, he said, eventually gave the Supreme Court the opportunity to take up the rental power plants case.
Akhtar Buland Rana’s statements expose the weaknesses of parliament’s accountability system that remains vulnerable to political pressures and to priorities often determined by those sitting at the helm of affairs.
Speaking on Thursday during a PAC meeting, Rana criticised the accountability body for not taking up audit reports from the tenure of the Pakistan Peoples Party-led coalition government.
The issue of corruption in RPPs was first taken up by the office of the auditor general and thoroughly investigated for three years, he said.
He added that the AGP’s work, however, went down the drain when the PAC failed to discuss the reports, giving an opportunity to the SC to take up the matter. The amount that was recovered on the directions of the apex court could have been credited to the AGP and PAC had the committee taken up the reports for discussion on time, Rana added.
According to the AGP’s report, only six shady deals caused a colossal loss of over Rs50 billion. A total of 19 RPPs had been approved by the government when the premier was the water and power minister.
The auditor-general had recommended cancelling the contracts of power plants which had failed to achieve their commercial operation date. The report also recommended figuring out who was responsible for awarding rental power contracts without screening the capabilities and track records of companies bidding for the projects.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has also carried out the audit of the RPPs. The ADB’s report highlighted loopholes in the shady deals, termed the contracts in favour of the sellers and highlighted constant financial constraints on the already limited resources that put an approximately $5 billion extra burden on the national exchequer.
Rana went on to say that if the PAC cannot take notice of massive corruption by the government agencies, it should allow the AGP to take suo motu notice of such cases. However, PAC Chairman Nadeem Afzal Chan did not take well to the idea.
Chan said if fresh reports were not discussed in the PAC, it was also the responsibility of the auditors.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 25th, 2013.
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