KARACHI: SLGC may refer case of shop boards to NAB
KARACHI, Jan 26: The 28th meeting of the Sindh Local Government Commission, held under the chairmanship of Local Government Adviser Waseem Akhtar, decided to refer the case of sun-shade shop boards contract to the National Accountability Bureau
in view of alleged gross irregularities committed in the matter.
Discussing various issues at the meeting, it was observed that serious irregularities had been committed by the city government in the shade contract. It was pointed out that this contract was awarded for Rs500 million in violation of the specified conditions as were advertised. However the contractor fled away without paying the instalments.
It was observed that the contract was awarded for two years while the contractor made a payment of only Rs40 million. In a short period he recovered millions of rupees and got his security deposit refunded/adjusted besides withdrawing bank/insurance guarantee, as a result of which the exchequer lost millions of rupees.
The commission decided to seek details of the auctioned plots' payments that had not been made and the city government had decided to regularise such plots in violation of the Sindh Local Government Rules 1975.
The commission also took notice of auctioning of contracts in violation of the Sindh Local Government Contract Rules 2001 and for which the city nazim was not empowered. It was pointed out that when called for, the details of such auctions were not provided by the nazim. The commission decided to refer the matter to the chief minister of Sindh.
The commission took notice of the non-receipt of reply to its questionnaire sent to the city nazim and the district coordination officer about annual inspection and, therefore, a committee comprising all the four members and the director-general of the commission was formed to begin inspection of the city government on Feb 14. The committee will be headed by Member (Technical) M.A. Karim Iqbal.
The commission decided to refer another matter regarding references sent to the city government concerning an inquiry report in 40 matters and internal recall to which no reply was received from the city government.
It was noted at the meeting that under section 120, sub-section n1 of SLGO 2001, no local government was permitted to obtain loan or to spend beyond the income. However, the city government could make collections by 60 per cent less than the targets while unlimited expenditures were being made.
The Sindh government in this regard had invited the attention of all local bodies that they do to violate the rules. Observing that the city government was spending billions of rupees over and above its income and thus paralysing itself, the meeting decided to refer the matter to the chief minister.
In matters where an inquiry had been completed and in cases which were being referred to the chief minister, the commission decided to present recommendations for external recall of the nazim. The meeting was attended, among others, by Additional Chief Secretary for Local Government Mohammed Saleem Khan. - APP
