ISLAMABAD: The National Highway Authority (NHA) is facing
over 3,000 cases of litigation involving hundreds of billions of rupees,
including some related to China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)
projects, mainly because of alleged mass-scale irregularities and
controversial award of contracts.
Faulty appointments
and violations of rules have allegedly been experienced in NHA during
the present government, documents available with Dawn revealed. It has
been observed that the authority is facing such an ample amount of
litigations despite it has an army of over 150 consultants who are
getting monthly salary/parks/allowances runs in billions of rupees.
Some
of the CPEC-related projects facing litigations, including
Thakot-Havelian, Hakla-DIK, E-35 Havelian Abbottabad. Some other mage
litigations are: Islamabad-Peshawar Motorway (M1), Islamabad-Lahore
Motorway (M-2), Faialabad-Khanewal (M-4) and Karachi-Hyderabad Motorway
(M-(9).
It has been learnt that more than 150 mega cases
was being dealt by a cell called Dispute Resolution Cell (DRC) of the
NHA headed by Senior Procurement & Contract Specialist retired Col
Muhammad Azim.
Documents reveal alleged mass-scale irregularities and controversial award of contracts
Mr Azim, who has been serving the NHA since 2003, was
re-appointed on Jan 7, 2011 for a period of one year and recently he has
also been given extension of three months.
For the
first time ever highest 389 printed audit paras drafted by none other
but the Director General Audit (Works) against NHA for alleged
irregularities in day to day affairs of the authority.
The
audit report has also pointed out that the alleged irregular award of a
contract at higher rates in NHA caused a loss of Rs166.174 billion,
irregular award of contract in violation of Public Procurement
Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules and bidding documents — Rs 148.654bn,
issuance of works beyond the financial capacity /limit of the insurance
companies — Rs39.522bn, irregular award of works — Rs 18.526bn,
irregular acceptance of non-responsive bid — Rs17.18bn, irregular award
of works without revision of PC-1 — Rs 16.373bn, irregular payment of
mobilisation advance due to non-obtaining of required insurance —
Rs14.86 million, irregular enhancement in previous agreement —
Rs3.005bn, a loss of Rs4.4bn was caused due to late start and
non-completion of some projects, an abnormal delay in completion of a
flyover project and ineffective site supervision — Rs150m and extra
burden of Rs2.6bn on government exchequer due to non-completion of
project within the stipulated time period.
Controversial appointments
It
has been learnt that former NHA chairman Shahid Ashraf Tarar was
appointed in December, 2013 and mandatory approval of his appointment
was given by National Highway Council (NHC) headed by Minister for
Communication by virtue of his office before he took over the charge of
his office.
However, the council’s meeting was chaired
by Sheikh Aftab, the incumbent minister for parliament affairs in
December, 2013 because the portfolio of the minister communication was
held by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.
According to the rules Mr Aftab could not chair the meeting and endorse the appointment of Mr Tarar.
According
to the documents, some of the consultants have been given key positions
on the NHA despite the fact that they were considered “outsiders”.
Retired Col Salman Rashid is heading NHA Monitoring and Instruction
Wing, retired Col Waqar is assisting member finance in day to day
affairs and retired Col Musaddaq has been made head of the security on
CPEC.
Presently 60 deputationists are working with NHA
despite stern orders of the Supreme Court that no person could serve on
deputation more than three years in any other department. Some of the
key office holders on deputation are: Naveed Iqbal Walah (member central
zone, Lahore), Abdullah Jan (member south zone, Karachi) Sajjad Ahmed,
GM establishment.
INTRNTIONAL ARBITRATION ON M-1:
One of arbitrations still facing by the NHA is regarding award a
contract of Islamabad-Peshawar Motorway to a Turkish based firm called
Bayinder Construction Inc (BCI).
According to a
document, machinery and equipment imported by BCI was given to Jaffar
Brothers Limited (JBL) was hired without tendering on heavy cost for
evaluation of left over machinery and other equipment, however Pakistan
Customs was the competent authority for this job. The financial impact
was estimated from Rs5bn to Rs9bn with premature encashment of bank
guarantee worth Rs4bn.
HUGE DUMP OF EXPLOSIVES:
The NHA has no record of huge leftover explosives of BCI based at
Burhan camp in 80 rooms full of magazines of detonators, mines and
blasting material. It has been learnt that to hide where this material
was used, an eyewash committee was formed under the member finance.
Award of contracts
The
authority awarded a number of road projects to a local firm called ZKB
allegedly without following rules. However, ex-NHA chairman Mr Tarar
said these contracts were awarded after the firm stood lowest in the
bidding process. He said NHA could not raise the issue of financial
capacity of the firm to execute various projects simultaneously because
it always came up with different international firms in joint venture.
Replying to Dawn queries regarding litigations, a NHA spokesperson agreed that the authority was facing over 3,000 litigations.
Regarding
the Islamabad-Peshawar Motorway (M-I), he said BCI, the Turkish
contractor, was expelled from M-1 project in 2001 and the NHA was
engaged in litigation in three main forums: Bayinder’s cases in local
courts, NHA’s encashment of bank guarantees in Turkey and Bayinder’s
case in an international court for $746m claim. He claimed that the
NHA’s success rate was 100 per cent in this case.
Regarding
controversial DRC of the NHA, he said DRC made for Islamabad-Peshawar
Motorway M-1 project was converted to DRC NHA on Sept 7, 2011, following
the approval of NHA legal regulations by the NHA executive board. The
spokesperson said the NHA engaged consultants by following PPRA rules in
2010 and thereafter contract was extended for two years terms as per
contract law. “There is no age limit restriction for hiring lawyers,
doctors and specialists through tendering procedure,” he said.
According
to the NHA documents, the claims of China International Water and
Electric Company (CWE) is amounting to Rs2.74bn plus interest, firm Bina
Puri’s claims are about Rs30bn, Daewoo claimed for Rs824m in one case,
Bayinder Construction Inc Rs52bn, Rakshani Builders Rs846m, Ayub
Brothers Rs407m, firm Interconstruct Rs300m, AM Associates Rs190m,
Rustan Dynamic JV Rs200m, etc.
