ISLAMABAD: Some senior officials of federal ministry of water resources would be facing an inquiry into alleged misappropriations and intentional delay in awarding contract of consultancy to install telemetry system under a World Bank’s project costing US$ 38 million.
The inordinate delay and reports of alleged anomalies forced Prime Minister Iman Khan to intervene and constitute a four members high-level inquiry committee to probe into the matter.
A senior official of Prime Minister Office, on condition of anonymity informed The News Today that they have bene receiving complaints of malpractices in federal ministry of water and its attached departments for past many months. He said relevant departments assigned to keep an eye on working of ministries have also pointed out flaws in their reports on performance of the ministry.
In pursuance to one of the complaints received to premier office about deliberate delay in awarding the contract for installation of telemetry system, the federal ministry of water resources under directions of Prime Minister Office has constituted a four members inquiry committee to probe the facts behind the strategic and financial loss to national exchequer.
The committee will complete its work within two weeks and submit its report by March 25, 2020.
The first meeting of inquiry committee has been convened for tomorrow (Tuesday) at ministry of water resources. An official letter No. 1-64 (2018) from ministry, in this regard has been issued asking all stakeholders to attend the meeting.
A section officer of ministry of water on March 06 issued the official communiqué No. 1 (64)/2018-Water informing that ministry on direction of Prime Minister Office has formed an inquiry committee comprising four members; Alamgir Khan, member (technical) in office of Chairman Federal Flood Commission (CFFC) as Convener, Naveed Asghar, General manager (GM) Finance (Power) Wapda, Suleman Akram, Deputy Director (DD) contracts, office of GM (C&M) Wapda and Sajeel Saeed, Deputy Secretary (Water), ministry of water resources as members of committee to probe into the matter.
According to the copy of Terms of Reference (ToRs) available with the scribe, the committee will enquire into the entire bidding process undertaken by Indus River System Authority (IRSA) for the activity “Indus Basin Irrigation Telemetry System – Automation of Discharge Monitoring at 07 Pilot Key Sites” and identify as to whether there was any mismanagement in the procurement process and violation of PPRA Rules, 2004.
The Inquiry committee under described ToRs will find the facts against justification based on sound reasoning which necessitated scrapping the procurement process initiated for consultancy services and compliance of the laid down procedures in cancellation of the award of procurement of the consultancy contract.
The committee will find the implications in terms of cost and time overruns for the project-installation of telemetry system. Inquiry committee will also determine the roles and responsibilities of the members of the authority in this inordinate delay.
The official communiqué revealed that the inquiry committee will also find out the appraisal of the existing competence and capacities of IRSA to undertake the project involving intricate issues of project management, contracting procurement, operation and monitoring of telemetry system and will also give its recommendations and way forward.
The committee will complete its work within two weeks and submit its report not later than March 25, 2020 for further orders of Prime Minister of Pakistan, as per the official letter.
A senior official of ministry of water resources, requesting not to be named, informed The News Today that the issue came to limelight when one of the senior official of ministry using the delaying tactics showed the door to the lowest winner of bid MM Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd. This was allegedly done to facilitate semi-government consultancy company National Engineering Services Pakistan (NESPAK).
He was of the view that the federal ministries who directly contracted with construction work including ministry of energy, ministry of communication and ministry of water resources particularly, were injected with officials from semi-government consultancy company National Engineering Services Pakistan (NESPAK) for lobbying to grab the consultancy contracts of worth billions of rupees.
The complainant MM Pakistan, talking to this scribe said in January 2019, the bidding process for awarding contract of consultancy on telemetry system was carried out. After thorough evaluation of financial and technical bids of shortlisted companies, MM Pakistan was declared the winning party and all negotiations with officials were completed.
Later on, the project director at that time and joint secretary ministry of water resources, Syed Mehar Ali Shah in connivance of NESPAK officials, started delaying tactics and at the end, showed us door, the official alleged.
The complaint No. GMT/IRSA/2007 by MM Pakistan stated that in 2019, MMP participated in the tender process. On June 11, 2019, the company was informed that it has scored the highest position after technical and financial evaluation, and it was invited for contract negotiations. Subsequently, the draft contract was negotiated and finalized with IRSA’s negotiation committee.
The document revealed that IRSA unilaterally changed the selection criteria post award, in contravention of both PPRA and World Bank guidelines. This was resultantly taken up by MMP with various representations to IRSA/W-CAP. Eventually in January 30, 2020, MMP was informed that procurement process was annulled.
Because of managerial corruption and malpractices in ministry of water resources and its attached departments and projects particularly W-CAP, The World bank in its recent report on W-CAP project has also expressed dissatisfaction on overall progress.
Officials in the ministry believe that the inquiry might land some senior officials into hot waters.
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