KARACHI: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has filed a reference against the former managing director of the Sindh Tourism Development Corporation (STDC) pertaining to alleged corruption worth Rs175 million.

The federal anti-graft watchdog named Roshan Ali Kanasro, the then DG, and seven other officials of the STDC in the reference.

The administrative judge of the accountability courts, Farid Anwar Qazi, admitted the reference for hearing.

The watchdog mentioned that an inquiry was instituted into the alleged corruption and corrupt practices of Roshan Ali Kanasro, the managing director of the STDC, and other officials on April 3.

During the course of investigation, it transpired that the STDC had invited tenders for award of contracts to private contractors for purchase of furniture, repair of vehicles, event management and printing/publication, etc, it said.

It added that tenders were published in dummy newspapers on July 31, 2017 and most of the participating companies were fake and had been formed only to get these tenders.

It further mentioned that the record showed that an advertisement appeared on Aug 31, 2017 in less-known daily newspapers regarding award of the contracts/tenders to five firms including M/s Sameer Enterprises, M/s Fahad Enterprises, M/s RMA Sahita Brothers, M/s Burraq Business and M/s Total Computing Technology.

However, NAB claimed that the amount awarded for the tenders was largely embezzled, adding that apparently the jobs/work had been distributed among the bidding companies through a ring by the chairman of the tender committee.

It added that the rates quoted by the firms concerned also appeared to be exorbitant while most of the work had only been done on paper and no inventory details had been prepared by the responsible officials.

The bureau claimed that five nominated private contractors had already entered into plea bargain with the NAB authorities in the present case and had subsequently voluntarily returned around Rs15,400,000 to the national exchequer.

Published in Dawn, November 15th, 2019