12 June 2004	Saturday	23 Rabi-us-Saani 1425

KARACHI, June 11: The Anti-Corruption Establishment Sindh has unearthed a big scam involving Rs70 million in the on-going Right Bank Outfall Drain project.

Timely investigation and detection of scam has saved an amount of Rs11 million from being misappropriated, an official handout said here on Friday.

According to details, ACE chairman Brig.(R) Mukhtar Ahmed received an information that a huge embezzlement has been committed in RBOD project in Dadu district by government officials and private contractors. The chairman, therefore, deputed deputy director, Hyderabad to conduct a detailed inquiry into the allegations.

During the investigation, it was revealed that 15 projects worth Rs15 billion were sanctioned. In two projects, the government officials and private contractors, in league with each other, caused a loss of Rs70 million to the exchequer.

Payments of Rs11 million, which was ready to be paid, was saved after the ACE seized the record. In two embezzlement cases Reliance Engineering Works was awarded a contract for which a mobilization advance of about Rs1.30 crore was sanctioned by the executive engineer, Khalid Haider Memon.

However, the firm, despite having been bound to start the work within 14 days of receiving the mobililization amount, did not start the work for seven months and its owners disappeared from the scene.

The same firm was awarded another contract for rock-blasting for excavation work for an amount of about Rs5.70 crore. The amount was sanctioned by the executive engineer Fawad Ahmed Memon. However, the XEn did not bother to inspect the site. No rock-blasting was carried out and the amount was embezzled.

In the third case, H. Haq Noor and Company was awarded a contract of jungle clearance. An unexplained variation of over 61 lakh square feet in the measurements of jungle clearance was found. The assistant engineer, Waqar Ahmed Qadri, approved the payment of about Rs 42,55,000 to the contractor.

The same engineer sanctioned Rs67,81,278 to Standard Construction Consortium, which was awarded a contract for cutting trees. The company gave a certificate of cutting 12068 trees though they had actually cut only 3,221 trees.

In the last two cases, the amount of Rs11 million was saved due to timely seizure of the records by ACE. After the completion of enquiry, the matter was referred to ACC-I, which gave permission for registration of four cases.

The authority also passed orders for black-listing S.H. Haq Noor and Company, Standard Construction Company and Reliance Engineering Works from being given any works in the entire province.

The authority also decided to forfeit the earnest money and security deposits of the three companies. Raids are being conducted for the arrest of alleged accused and more startling disclosures are expected soon. -PPI