May 24, 2005	Tuesday	Rabi-us-Sani 15, 1426

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ISLAMABAD, May 23: The Senate standing committee on water and power on Monday expressed concern over the irregularity in the award of contract for the Rs64-billion-Mangla Dam raising project and asked the Wapda to submit a report to the committee.

Chairman of the standing committee, Senator Hafiz Abdul Malik Qadri presided over the meeting.

“The contract was given to a firm in which former cabinet minister, Razzak Dawood, holds shares,” said Senator Dr Abdullah Riar, when asked about owners of the firm.

Wapda Chairman Tariq Hameed found it hard to explain a number of questions raised by the committee over irregularities in the contract given by his predecessor, Lt-Gen (retired) Zulfiqar Ali Khan. On his request, the committee allowed the Wapda chairman to submit a written reply by June 1 on questions and concerns raised by the senators.

The Wapda chairman claimed that the contract was awarded to the lowest bidder as per international standards and the work on the project began in June 2004.

“As the project is of special nature, contractors having sound financial background and specific experience of construction were required”, he said.

He claimed a transparent process was adopted for awarding the contract in accordance with the advice of Pakistan Engineering Council.

Contesting the Wapda chairman’s contention, Senator Riar presented a set of documents before the committee which pointed out the irregularities in the award of contract to CWE, a joint venture firm. He said the pre-qualification by the bidder was fraudulent.

Senator Riar said despite the fact that the ministry and Wapda were aware of the misrepresentation by CWE during the pre-qualification no remedial measures had been taken.

He said CWE fraudulently claimed that they had completed Tongjiezi Hydropower project in China whereas the project was completed by Sinohydro. The misrepresentation by CWE was in violation of PITA (particular instructions to participants) part B Clause 4.8(a) and GITA (general instructions to contractors) Clause 4.1.

Senator Riar said Wapda paid millions of rupees to Nespak as consultant for the project but disregarded its report which pointed out technical limitations of the contractor and advised not to give contract to CWE.

He said Nespak had indicated that serious damage could result to the structure of the dam if the contract was given to CWE but Wapda ignored the report of the technical evaluation committee.

Dr Riar read a paragraph from the report before the committee which inter alia said, “...the submissions and responses received from CWE were average-to-poor. In some respects, such as the critical phased work on the main spillway, which would directly affect the safety of Mangla Dam, the submission and clarification by CWE was unacceptable and indeed, unworkable.”

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