June 12, 2008	Thursday	Jamadi-us-Sani 07, 1429

HYDERABAD, June 11: Sindh Minister for Works and Services Manzoor Hussain Wasan said on Wednesday that he had done away with the corrupt practice of seven per cent commission for the minister and the executive engineer on award of hefty contracts.

The practice, which had almost become a norm over the years, started in 80s during Gen Zia’s regime, the minister said as he issued a warning to officers to be ready to face action if they dared indulge in such wrongdoing in future.

He said at a news conference at the Circuit House that “I have been told that it was a normal practice over the last 20 years that five to seven per cent commission is paid on work orders. Of this amount, two per cent is paid to the minister and one per cent to the chief engineer.”

But the PPP government had decided to eliminate this curse to ensure quantity and quality of works, he said. No one would now get commission of seven per cent on contracts.

One per cent commission on a Rs1 billion contract roughly came to Rs1 million which could be utilised on the betterment of people, he added.

Mr Wasan said that Rs9 billion and Rs2.5 billion had been allocated in the forthcoming budget for works (buildings) and services (road) sectors.

Rs6 billion were being utilised on highways by the chief engineer concerned and Rs14 billion had been funded by Asian Development Bank (ADB), he said.

He said that he would form a committee to oversee quality of works, executed so far.

“Once we are able to prove that we have done quality works on highways we will be able to get back control of Super Highway as well,” he said.

He said that embezzlement had been done in the ADB-funded projects as well but now he had decided to take the matters seriously.

He would also look into the contracts awarded by the outgoing government and would not spare officials if he found anomalies.

He said that revolutionary steps were needed to turn things around. The projects that had been designed by outgoing government to facilitate a particular landlord or a political personality without realising their feasibility had been abandoned, he said.

He said that Rs1.5 billion had been spent on the hometown of former chief minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim, which was unjustified.

Either equal or at least 50 per cent of funds should have been earmarked for each district, he said.

He said that tendering process would become transparent automatically when contractors would feel comfortable that they did not have to pay commission on work orders.

The bidding process for a contract would be open and everyone would be free to participate in it, he said.

The minister earlier at a meeting formed a technical committee to supervise ongoing development works and said that he was fully aware of technical procedures of qualitative works and he would ensure that works were done as per specifications.

He said that the PPP government intended to lay an effective network of roads not only to provide communication facilities but to boost up economic activities and eliminate unemployment and poverty.

He said that honest officers would be encouraged and defended and directed the officers to submit district-wise report about their annual allocation 2007-2008, releases and expenditure up to June 8 so that performance of officers could be assessed.

Chief Engineer Highways Syed Abdul Qadir Shah, Chief Engineer Building Abdul Sattar Solangi, superintending engineers, executive engineers from Sindh attended meeting and briefed minister about ongoing works.