Public Works Dept: Contractor paid Rs10m to build himself a pool

FIA identifies 14 ‘ghost’ development schemes causing loss of Rs160m.

LAHORE:

A contractor for the Pakistan Public Works Department (Pak-PWD) was paid Rs10 million to build a swimming pool, car park and boundary wall at a “community centre” in Manga Mandi that, it later emerged, was his own farmhouse.

The scam is among 14 “ghost” development schemes in Lahore, Sheikhupura, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Okara and Multan that have been uncovered by Pak-PWD inspectors.

In most of these ghost schemes, department officials colluded with contractors to make payment for development schemes when no actual development work had been done, or where development work had been done already by other agencies, according to FIA officials and PWD inspection reports. In some cases, the contractor used substandard materials.

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has completed an inquiry and registered cases against PWD officers and contractors at its offices in Lahore, Multan and Faisalabad for causing the public exchequer a loss of Rs160 million.



One ghost development scheme was for work on a community centre in Manga Mandi. Muhammad Ismail, of Ismail Construction Co, was contracted in May 2012 to build a swimming pool with a fibre glass roof, a car park and a boundary wall. A PWD inspection later found that the work done by the contractor had been on his own farmhouse. The contractor was paid over Rs10 million for the work.

Further, according to the inspection report, a U-turn was constructed on a main road solely to allow him and his guests easy access to the farmhouse.

The report stated that PWD officials and at least two women parliamentarians had colluded with the contractor and had enjoyed the hospitality at the farmhouse.

In a separate case, the contractor hired to construct a metalled road along the Khaira Distributory  connecting Burki Road to Basti Dhorwala to Jallo Mor and Defence Phase IV – at a cost of almost Rs80 million used substandard material, causing a loss of Rs47.34 million.

The FIA has registered three criminal cases against Executive Engineer (XEN) Humera Khurrum Khan, Sub Divisional Officers (SDOs) Khurshid Ahmad Mirza, Arif Rasool and Pervaiz Iqbal Mehmmood, Sub Engineers Faizul Hassan, Abdul Waheed, Imran Alam, Ghulam Sarwar, Ejaz Hussain and Niamat Ali, Divisional Account Officers Ghaffar Ahmed and Jamil Alvi, and contractors Khan Construction & Co, S&H Associates, Kambooh Builders, Faisal Iqbal, Tariq Khokhar, Riaz Hussain and Syed Alam Dar Hussain Shah.

Sources in the FIA said that another case would soon be registered against XEN Humera Khan, XEN Nighat Anwar, contractor Ismail and other PWD officials and contractors for allegedly misappropriating millions of rupees in four development schemes worth Rs58 million.

The Pak PWD director general has also pointed out a lack of transparency in the tendering of a Rs153 million project in Lahore.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 30^th, 2013.