ISLAMABAD: A firm has been collecting the entry ticket fee at Lake View Park for the last year without submitting a bank guarantee, due to the negligence of the Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad’s (MCI) environment wing.

This makes the second consecutive controversial contract for entry fee collection. Officials from the environment wing told Dawn the MCI awarded a Rs58.5 million contract to a private firm last year but did not get a bank guarantee, in accordance with the Terms of Reference (ToR).

An official said that according to the ToR, the contractor was supposed to submit 65pc of the contract as the bank guarantee in favour of the civic organisation. “Without getting a bank guarantee, which is 65pc of the contract amount, our officers handed the possession letter to the private firm,” an official said.

He said the contractor later filed a case against the authority, which is currently in court.

Parks Director Ghezwan Shamshad said he would not comment on the details of the case because the matter is in court.

“It is an old tradition that our officers first award the contract against the rules and later they ‘advise’ the contractors to go to court, where our officers don’t properly pursue the cases,” a Capital Development Authority (CDA) clerk said.

When the contract was awarded, the park was under the administrative control of the CDA. In August 2016, control of the park was handed over to the MCI.

When asked, the chief metropolitan officer said he had “no idea about this case”. “But if the contractor is collecting entry fees without submitting a bank guarantee then it is a scam. I will look into the matter,” he added.

In January 2016, a couple of months before the contract, the CDA ordered another inquiry into the entry ticket scam, in which another contractor – in connivance with four CDA officials – collected Rs16.5 million in illegal entry fees.

In light of an inquiry report in 2015, the CDA imposed penalties and ordered recovery of the aforementioned sum from the three officials. But in 2016, the CDA ordered another inquiry, the findings of which have not yet been made public.

The inquiry revealed that in 2011, the CDA signed a contract for entry fee collection with a firm. According to the terms and conditions, the accord was to be effective from November 2011. An official said: “So far, no action has been taken against the officials and no recovery has been made.”

“It is unfortunate that both scams – one of which took place in 2011 – and the second one, in 2016, took place in the Lake View Park’s project, but so far, no disciplinary action is taken,” said an official from the park directorate.

Published in Dawn, February 20th, 2017