Public Accounts Committee
ISLAMABAD: A case of massive corruption came up before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Tuesday during an audit para of the National Highway Authority for the financial year 2004-05, revealing a project that cost only Rs399,360 but in which overpayment was done to the tune of Rs51.324 million.
PAC directed Secretary Ministry of Communications Anwar Ahmed Khan to recover the Rs51.723 million from M/s PAMIC by fixing responsibility and reporting back to the committee. Interestingly PAMIC was a consortium of five companies and it will now be very difficult to recover the amount from it. However, PAC has directed that if the money cannot be recovered from the five companies, it should be recovered from the officials of the Ministry of Communications responsible for the execution of the project.According to contract agreement of Faisalabad-Pindi Bhattian (M-3) item 506-C of bill no 4-G (16 flyovers), a composite rate of Rs780 per chute was to be paid for providing 512 concrete chutes in the bill of quantities.
The NHA changed the item 506-C “Percast” 512 chutes payable at Rs780 per chute for a total amount of Rs399,360 as provided in Bill of Quantities (BOQ) to concrete chutes “in situ) (at-site casting) to be paid through revised BOQ which increased the rate cost at Rs101,021.27 with net effect of Rs51.723 million which was 12,863 percent above the original rate.
The audit authorities objected to the payment of Rs51.723 million saying that the payment was made in violation of agreement.The Departmental Accounts Committee (DAC) of the Communication Ministry said the item was changed from pre-cast to site casting on the request of the contractor. The rate for the new item was required to be determined on the basis of tender rate for pre-cast and as per contract clause. Instead of following the prescribed procedure for deriving new rate for the newly introduced item and without any rate analysis, the rates quoted by the contractor were accepted and incorporated in the contract through amendment and paid.The PAC was informed that DAC had directed the member (Finance) to recover the money from M/s PAMIC within 15 days.
PAC shocked over massive corruption in NHA project
ISLAMABAD: A case of massive corruption came up before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Tuesday during an audit para of the National Highway Authority for the financial year 2004-05, revealing a project that cost only Rs399,360 but in which overpayment was done to the tune of Rs51.324 million.
PAC directed Secretary Ministry of Communications Anwar Ahmed Khan to recover the Rs51.723 million from M/s PAMIC by fixing responsibility and reporting back to the committee. Interestingly PAMIC was a consortium of five companies and it will now be very difficult to recover the amount from it. However, PAC has directed that if the money cannot be recovered from the five companies, it should be recovered from the officials of the Ministry of Communications responsible for the execution of the project.
According to contract agreement of Faisalabad-Pindi Bhattian (M-3) item 506-C of bill no 4-G (16 flyovers), a composite rate of Rs780 per chute was to be paid for providing 512 concrete chutes in the bill of quantities.
The NHA changed the item 506-C “Percast” 512 chutes payable at Rs780 per chute for a total amount of Rs399,360 as provided in Bill of Quantities (BOQ) to concrete chutes “in situ) (at-site casting) to be paid through revised BOQ which increased the rate cost at Rs101,021.27 with net effect of Rs51.723 million which was 12,863 percent above the original rate.
The audit authorities objected to the payment of Rs51.723 million saying that the payment was made in violation of agreement.The Departmental Accounts Committee (DAC) of the Communication Ministry said the item was changed from pre-cast to site casting on the request of the contractor. The rate for the new item was required to be determined on the basis of tender rate for pre-cast and as per contract clause. Instead of following the prescribed procedure for deriving new rate for the newly introduced item and without any rate analysis, the rates quoted by the contractor were accepted and incorporated in the contract through amendment and paid.The PAC was informed that DAC had directed the member (Finance) to recover the money from M/s PAMIC within 15 days
