ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan ordered a probe into an issue unearthed in 2020, regarding the sabotage of Telemetry system installation project funded by the World Bank, but strangely the top bureaucracy has proposed opening an inquiry from 2002.
The inordinate delay and reports of alleged anomalies in a recent fact finding committee’s report forced Prime Minister Imran Khan in a cabinet meeting held on May 19, to order a high-power inquiry committee to probe the matter of sabotaging a water measurement system called ‘Telemetry’ project.
According to the minutes of last month’s cabinet meeting available with The News Today, it was decided that ministry of water resources will constitute an inquiry committee and Terms of Reference (ToRs) for probing of sabotaging Telemetry System will be submitted to the cabinet on June 9, 2020.
The summary submitted to cabinet office by ministry of water resources signed by federal secretary Muhammad Ashraf revealed that ministry constituted three member high-power committee comprising deputy chairman planning division Jahanzeb Khan, federal secretary aviation division Hassan Nasir Jammy and federal secretary ministry of industries and production Afzal Latif.
The copy of summary available with this scribe disclosed that the bureaucracy in the ministry of water resources has decided to open the inquiry from 2002, when 1st Telemetry System installation project was designed by the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA).
When this project was awarded to WAPDA in 2000, the former military chief Gen ® Pervaiz Musharaf was ruling the country.
“Determine the nature and extent of individual and collective responsibility of members IRSA or any other individual/organization in sabotaging the operation of IRSA Telemetry System designed in 2002 by WAPDA and the mismanagement involved in the process of hiring of consultancy of firms in World Bank funded project namely ‘Real Time Flow Measurements Through Telemetric Monitoring’ and propose recommendation/way forward.”, federal secretary proposed to cabinet in an official document.
The Telemetry System’s installation project was awarded to WAPDA in 2000, but WAPDA failed to execute the project on ground and caused loss of Rs.345 million rupees to the kitty.
The minutes of the meeting headed by than federal minister of water and power, Liaqat Jatoi are on record, who directed to initiate an inquiry against WAPDA for leaving the project incomplete. He had also recommended blacklisting National Engineering Services Pakistan (NESPAK), an engineering consultancy firm which was in partnership with WAPDA.
The tug of war between federation and provinces particularly Sindh and Punjab started when one of the senior officials of federal ministry of water resources, allegedly using the delaying tactics showed the door to the lowest winner of bid MM Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd. This was purportedly done to facilitate semi-government consultancy company National Engineering Services Pakistan (NESPAK).
Opposing federal cabinet decision on May 19 as removal of three members of Indus River System Authority (IRSA), Sindh province asked the Prime Minister to send the matter in the Council of Common Interest (CCI).
Nawab Muhammad Yousaf Talpur a Pakistan Peoples’ Party lawmaker in his capacity as Chairman National Assembly’s standing committee on water resources wrote a letter to Prime Minister Imran Khan requesting the premier to send the case of IRSA members to CCI- the highest forum on matters related to federation and provinces.
The move by ministry of water resources, allegedly to save the skin of its officials directly involved in mega scam of telemetry system installation is likely to engender another political crisis for Prime Minister Khan as Sindh opposed the cabinet decision of removing IRSA members in the light of inquiry committee.
The IRSA alleged that inquiry committee headed by an officer of federal flood commission did not cover all aspects and overlooked the mega scam of selection of company MM Pakistan (Pvt) Limited to save the skin of a senior official serving as Joint Secretary (JS) in ministry of water resources.
IRSA member from Punjab believed that Joint Secretary (JS) ministry of water resources Syed Mehar Ali Shah was keen to allot consultancy part of the contract of telemetry system to semi-government company National Engineering Services Pakistan (NESPAK).
The JS water, whose role is stated as controversial in the matter, was an employee of NESPAK and is serving on deputation in ministry as JS (water) BPS-20 since February 2015.
A senior official of the ministry of water resources on condition of anonymity informed The News Today that the proposed committee once again will do its routine business as usual, adding “all proposed members of the committee are associated with the Public Administrative Group (PAS) of civil service.
No member in the new probe team has technical specialty in water sector. Afzal Latif was the former additional secretary in Establishment Division, Nasir Hassan Jammy served as senior joint secretary in ministry of water and power. Both bureaucrats have close ties with a senior sitting officer of ministry water resources who have direct involvement in sabotaging Telemetry System’s installation project, the official maintained.
Another official in ministry of water resources claimed that in the federal ministries that are directly involved in awarding such contracts like; ministry of energy, ministry of communication and ministry of water resources, there is a strong lobby of a semi-government consultancy company National Engineering Services Pakistan (NESPAK) to grab the consultancy contracts worth billions of rupees.
Installation of Telemetry System, which needed working cooperation of multiple authorities and ministries, including provinces and the federation has been shelved. All of these people are blaming each other for the state’s collective failure and none is ready to take responsibility.
