PESHAWAR: The National Accountability Bureau has reopened investigation into the Peshawar Development Authority toll plaza’s tendering around a year after its formal closure due to a lack of evidence.

It is not immediately clear what prompted the authority to reinitiate investigation into the tendering of the toll plaza on Ring Road, Hayatabad.

The spokesperson for the NAB didn’t respond to the telephonic calls and text messages.

Investigation was closed last year over lack of evidence

According to the officials in the know, the issue resolves around the auction of the toll plaza. The NAB wants to know why the plaza has not been auctioned and/or its terms and conditions has not been relaxed enough to auction it to a private party.

The PDA on its part insists that it has tendered the auction 13 times since March 2015. The last tender was floated last week but no party showed interest in its auction forcing the PDA to oversee its operation by itself, an exercise, it says, has generated more money than the last auction.

The authority claims to have generated Rs80.43 million from the toll plaza during 2016-17.

Sources told Dawn that ironically, the NAB had reopened the investigation after failing to inform the Peshawar High Court about the closure of earlier investigation during the hearing into a petition filed by the Hayatabad Resident Society in June this year with a litany of complaints, including the toll plaza affair.

The PDA toll plaza has been built on the Ring Road close to the entrance of Hayatabad neighborhood of the city. Most of the heavy Afghanistan-bound traffic passes through it.

In October last year, the NAB had investigated the matter after it was alleged that the PDA ran it by itself instead of auctioning it to contractors and thus, causing losses to the exchequer.

“We’d tried to auction the toll plaza 13 times and even relaxed rules twice since March 2015 but no party showed interest,” a senior PDA official said.

The NAB after probing the matter cleared the PDA of any wrongdoing.

“Keeping in view the available records, facts and circumstances, the allegations leveled in the complaints have, prima facie, no grounds. Hence, the NFA is recommended,” read a NAB document available with Dawn.

A senior PDA official said the authority’s erstwhile administration had fixed the minimum bid amount at Rs80 million and therefore, then DG Khushal Khan rejected all prospective bids for being less than that.

He added that the PDA had again put up the toll plaza for bidding later in April and June 2015 but no one turned up for the process.

The official said in August 2015, Saleem Hassan Wattoo took over as the new DG and since then, the plaza had been offered for auction 10 times, but to no avail.

He said the PDA put up the plaza for auction in August, Sept and Oct the same year but no bidder showed interest in the tendering process forcing the authority to form a five-member committee to relax rules and regulations for the auction.

The committee proposed that the authority follow the National Highway Authority’s model wherein successful bidders would only receive service charges, while they would be bound to pay the rest of income to the authority.

Interestingly, when the PDA again put up the toll plaza for auction in Dec 2016, just one contractor took part in the exercise forcing the authority to cancel it. In Jan 2017, another bidding attempt was made but that, too, didn’t attract any bidder forcing the PDA to further relax rules and form a three-member committee, which, on Jan 25, relaxed the Rs80 minimum bid condition and awarded the auction to the highest bidder.

However, to avoid bankruptcy, the contractor had to pay 25 per cent of the amount with the authority in case the bid being accepted.

Thereafter, the PDA offered the toll plaza to prospective bidders. However, the contractors didn’t turn up to take part in the auction on Feb 21, 2017.

A single party took part in the March 29 bidding but didn’t get the contract as the minimum of three contractors are to take part in the auction process under the rules.

The toll plaza was later put up for auction in May and June this year but no contractor showed interest in it. The documents of the NAB’s last year investigation into the toll plaza affair available with Dawn showed that the authority ran the plaza after failing to sell it to contractors despite several attempts.

According to them, in 2013-14, the toll plaza earned a tax of Rs74.675 million, which jumped to Rs80.855 million in 2014-15.

However, it dropped to Rs68.62 million in 2015-16 with the PDA blaming it on strikes and closure of Afghan border.

During Sept 2015-July 2016, the toll plaza earned Rs14.35 million.

Published in Dawn, July 20th, 2017