HYDERABAD: The Anti-Corr­up­tion Establishment (ACE) autho­rities arrested three officials of the Sindh Industrial Trading Estate (SITE) on Monday after Sindh High Court’s Hyderabad circuit bench rejected pre-arrest bail applications of nine accused, including former deputy mayor of Karachi Dr Arshad Abdullah Vohra, the contractor of Rs996.952 million Combined Effluent Treat­ment Plant (CETP), Kotri.

The CETP remained dysfunctional for a long time after it was put in operation in 2010 on the directives of the high court. The three arrested SITE officials are Nabeel Ahmed Shaikh, Moiz Qazi and Abdullah Jatoi. Five co-accused — Waqar Abid, Moham­mad Essa, Ghulam Shabbir Kho­khar, Murad Ali Jatoi and Anum Siddique — managed to escape from court whereas Arshad Vohra was absent.

According to the ACE report, Nabeel Ahmed Shaikh was the estate engineer of Kotri SITE. He failed to check quality of work executed at the plant. Moiz Qazi was then finance director and made payment to the contractor. Abdullah Jatoi was sub-engineer and carried out substandard work in collusion with [different] contractors. Waqar Abid was partner in M/s Ara Joint Venture which was owned by Dr Arshad Vohra. Mohammad Essa was acting project in-charge of the contractor. He left the works incomplete causing losses to government. Ghulam Shabbir Khokhar was the chief engineer and made different payments to [different] contractors while failing to check quality of work and completion of project. Murad Ali Jatoi was also responsible for the substandard works carried out in collusion with [different] contractors. Anum Siddique, former finance director, made payments to the contractor.

The ACE report maintained that Dr Vohra’s Ara Joint Venture was awarded the contract bypassing the rules and regulations of the Sindh Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (SPPRA). It alleged that the company also received illegal benefits.

Five accused escape from court, three arrested

According to ACE additional director (legal) Rizwan Tirmizi, 14 accused were booked in a case registered against them vide crime No. 18/2019. Four of them — Abdul Rasheed Solangi, the then SITE managing director, Syed Manzoor Mehdi, Rehan and Agha Abdul Muneem — have absconded. Ano­ther accused, Abdul Waheed Sha­ikh, the then chief engineer, has died. Rehan is partner of Ara Joint Venture whereas Syed Manzoor Mehdi was the chief architect of the project. Agha Abdul Muneem was deputy project director and had the responsibility to supervise the work but, in collusion with contractors and consultants, he carried out substandard work.

According to the ACE report, the PC-I of the CEPT amounting to Rs667m was approved on April 17, 2010. The agreement for the contract was, however, signed by the SITE chief engineer and Ara Joint Venture for Rs996.953m on June 15, 2010 without approval of the revised PC-I.

On June 22, 2010, SITE deputy managing director issued work order to the contractor for Rs744.05m. The revised PC was sent to planning and development department but it was not approved.

The technical committee headed by Akhtar Hussain Dhawach, the then superintending engineer of buildings in Hyderabad, observed that civil structure was in shabby condition and leakages were seen at many places, while quality of work was unsatisfactory.

Report said that despite expenditure of Rs721.642m by Ara Joint Venture the project remained incomplete as the SITE officials concerned in collusion with its consultant and contractor misappropriated huge amount of funds.

Another ACE report submitted before high court revealed that an excess amount of Rs88.704m was made to the contractor and government had spent Rs26.555m for running the plant when it was taken over by SITE, otherwise it was part of the agreement that it would initially be run by the contractor.

The contractor claimed bills of Rs36.979m and it was a matter of litigation now. The ACE said even after deducting the contractor’s unpaid amount, a net loss of Rs78.28m was still caused. It revealed that extensive deviations from the PC-I were made.

CETP with 2.5MGD (million gallon per day) capacity was approved with an estimated cost of Rs667m several years ago and with increase in expenditures over and above actual cost, the total estimates are said to be hovering around Rs721m.

The plant was later handed over to the Kotri SITE under certain directives of the Supreme Court-mandated judicial commission on water and sanitation, headed by retired Justice Amir Hani Muslim, when he found it dysfunctional during his visit.

Published in Dawn, November 5th, 2019