ISLAMABAD: A Senate standing committee asked the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) on Wednesday to take action on complaints about alleged discrepancies in the LNG import project and refer the cases to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

The directives were issued by the Chairman of Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat, Talha Mehmood, after the members criticised the PPRA for not playing an active role in scrutinising public sector projects.

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They particularly criticised the PPRA’s role regarding scrutiny of the liquefied natural gas import and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects.

Talking to Dawn, Senator Mehmood of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam said he had asked the PPRA to refer cases regarding discrepancies in the LNG import project to NAB and the FIA within 10 days.

The chairman said he had asked the PPRA to strictly monitor all the projects to be carried out under the $46 billion CPEC project and report discrepancies to NAB or the FIA.

The committee, he said, had sought the past year’s record of the PPRA, indicating the action it had taken on complaints received regarding discrepancies in various development projects.

Senator Mehmood said the PPRA was a powerful organisation but it had not paid attention to the LNG project.

According to a handout, PPRA Managing Director Nusrat Bashir admitted before the committee that the authority had not paid attention to the issue nor the government had sought any proposal from it.

He said the authority had received 74,000 complaints that had been sent to NAB and the FIA for action since the PPRA had no power to carry out investigations on its own.

The committee’s members said the PPRA should play an effective role to monitor the projects and save trillions of rupees spent on them from the taxes paid by people.

The committee also received briefings from officials of the Civil Aviation Authority, Oil and Gas Re­­gulatory Authority, Capital Development Authority, Natio­nal Electric Power Regulatory Authority and Baitul Maal.

During a briefing on development projects at various airports, Senator Yousuf Badini from Balochistan staged a walkout over the failure of authorities to increase the number of flights from Quetta and frequent delays in the flight operations.

Aviation Secretary Imran Gardezi said 85 per cent of work on the new Islamabad airport had been completed and it would be operational by the end of next year.

The committee also sought details of expenditure of the Baitul Maal.

The committee’s members from the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and Awami National Party raised the issue of alleged mismanagement in the affairs of K-Electric.

Published in Dawn, May 28th, 2015

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