LAHORE, March 13: Transparency Internation-al has given a clean chit to the Rs30 billion Metro Bus Service project of the Shahbaz government.

“All relevant rules and regulations have been adhered to in the award of contracts for metro bus supply, maintenance and security,” a Punjab government handout quoted Transparency International Pakistan as having said in its report.

The Punjab government had on Feb 28 invited the agency to judge the transparency in the award of contracts of the project. The Lahore Development Authority had provided it a copy of the NAB Contract Evaluation Forms for the 27 contracts awarded under this project and details of infrastructure procurements of 25 contracts. The report has also evaluated the total cost of the project, which is around Rs30 billion.

A spokesman for the provincial government said the agency had silenced the critics who were “unjustifiably criticising this scheme for achieving their nefarious designs.”