RAWALPINDI, Aug 20: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Rawalpindi, has arrested four persons for allegedly causing a loss of Rs112.82 million to the national exchequer in the construction of Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation (RMC) Complex, an official source told Dawn on Wednesday.

The accused have been identified as Umer Rathore, managing- director Rathore Enterprises; Tariq Iqbal, chief engineer RMC; Shaikh Zafar Ahmed, former municipal engineer RMC; and Mohammad Ayub Khan, former SDO of the MCR, presently serving as deputy director Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa), Rawalpindi.

The main accused, Tariq Saeed, is, however, still at large. He had been arrested by the NAB, Punjab, on June 22, 2000, in connection with the Lahore District Council scam, but was released on February 14, 2001, under a plea-bargain.

The construction of the Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation Complex started in 1991. Its initial estimate was made by the municipal engineers as Rs30 million, the source said.

After hiring the consultant, the estimate was raised to Rs90 million. When the consultancy charge were linked with the total cost, the estimate was raised to Rs180 million then to Rs210 million and finally to the tune of Rs230 million.

The municipal engineers in connivance with the contractor once again revised the estimate to Rs289 million.

The contractor has, so far, received Rs220 million but work on the project has still not been completed. The accused adopted intricate methods for minting more and more money.

The RMC officials in collaboration with their senior bosses allegedly made heavy payments to the contractor — MS Rathore — against a huge quantity of iron bars, which were pretended to be utilized only in the measurement books but actually were not used in the raft foundation of Jinnah Hall and the office block. This amount, the source added, came to Rs15.86 million.

In the same way, by converting several items from schedule to non-schedule, the accused caused a loss of Rs58.97 million to the state exchequer.

Heavy rates were given to the contractor against the items of deformed steel and RCC concrete, which were almost 100 per cent higher than the market rates. The loss has been calculated at Rs37.98 million, the source added.

The source said just to benefit the contractor, some clauses, which were contrary to the rules laid down in the Punjab Local Council Rules and Works Code, were included in the contract agreement. Several allegedly fake documents were accepted by the RMC officials, which ultimately paved the way for corruption.

The total loss has, so far, been calculated to be Rs112.829 million, the source said.

Some of the RMC officials and those from the office of the chief engineer (buildings) north zone, Punjab, have already confessed before the NAB authorities while submitting their voluntary return request.