ISLAMABAD: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Wednesday proposed scrapping ab initio a high profile project to convert the operations of the entire government to paperless records that did not materialise for a decade due to inefficiency on the part of government machinery.

The agency has also advised that criminal cases against officials in executing agencies and foreign contractors such as LMK Resources be proceeded against swiftly for causing unquantifiable losses to the state.

“No progress has been made to implement the e-governance project in the Capital Development Authority (CDA) despite directions from the standing committee on information technology. There is only one solution. Arrests should be made. Recover lost public money. New tenders should be floated and fresh contracts awarded,” FIA Deputy Director Ejaz Ahmad Khan urged the Senate Standing Committee on IT.

Agency advises Senate body that officials from executing agencies, contractors be proceeded against

The committee met on Wednesday for a briefing on the implementation of its directions regarding the installation of e-services by LMK Resources at the CDA.

The FIA has been investigating irregularities in 13 National Information Technology Board (NITB) projects funded by the Public Sector Development Programme after a complaint was lodged by the IT ministry. The agency said that 13 government departments, including the CDA, have not fully implemented e-governance projects for which hundreds of computers were purchased but were never even switched on.

The e-governance programme is an IT ministry project that began a decade ago in 13 departments to encourage a paperless environment.

The case was brought to the committee’s attention by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Senator Azam Swati.

The non-implementation of the project has cost the government more than Rs1.5 billion in losses, the committee was told.

The FIA has been tasked with investigating the reasons for the failure to implement the e-governance in all the departments separately, starting with the CDA. Some 150 computers and related paraphernalia purchased by the CDA have been stolen over the years, the warranties of surviving equipment have expired and some storage devices are no longer functional.

Once FIA’s inquiries were completed, FIRs were registered against LMK Resources owner Atif Rais, NITB Executive Director Syed Raza Abbas, NITB project director Faisal Kamran and CDA’s IT and management division consultant Dr Athar Mansoor.

At its last meeting, the Senate committee had directed the NITB to implement the project in the CDA in two weeks or face action by the FIA.

PML-N Senator Ghous Mohammad Khan Niazi urged committee chairman Awami National Party Senator Shahi Syed to hand the case over to the FIA for its conclusion.

PPP Senator Rehman Malik also believed that public money should be recovered, but urged Senator Syed to give the concerned parties until Feb 27 to conclude the project.

Senior CDA official Nadeem Akbar Malik assured the committee that it was ready to conclude the e-governance project.

Published in Dawn, February 22nd, 2018