File photo of a nuclear power plant. PHOTO: FILE
Transparency International Pakistan (TIP) in a letter to Minister for Water & Power Khwaja Asif has taken strong exception to reported plans of deviation from rules and regulations in power sector projects.
It said that reports of doing away with open tenders and considering direct contracting to fast track investment in power sector, if found true, would spawn corruption.
“This request of exemption from tendering of power projects, and to be awarded based on MoU costs, from you, if proved to be true and approved by Economic Coordination Committee, may amount to the biggest corruption scam in the history of Pakistan, and the nation will not spare the wrongdoers,” TIP wrote.
The anti-graft whistle-blower said that it has been reported that the scope and applicability of the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules should exclude procurements where private sector financing, export credit scheme, concessional credit, suppliers or buyers credit, build operate own, build operate transfer modes are involved as they do not include recourse to public funds and public procurements as defined under the PPRA rules.
TIP claimed that the MoU of $35 billion signed with China cannot be implemented at the whims and wishes of anyone, be it minister or the prime minister, as law of necessity has been buried by the Supreme Court in the NRO case.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 9th, 2014.
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