TAXILA: The letter of Punjab Governor Sardar Saleem Haider to the chief minister regarding alleged misappropriation of Rs2.5 billion funds in road maintenance and upgradation in 2023 took a new turn on Monday after officials of the district council responded with a rebuttal and termed it a “misunderstanding” on the part of the Governor Office.

“News published in an Urdu daily was made the basis of the letter issued by the worthy Governor Office,” said District Officer Infrastructure and Services (I&S) District Council Attock Zulqarnain Shah.

He claimed that all legal and technical requirements had been fulfilled in the execution of the maintenance project.

Talking toDawnat the District Council Office in Attock on Monday, Mr Shah said from invitation of tenders to allocation of tender and from execution of work to release of money to the contractor company, not only legal formalities under the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules were followed but the third party audit of the construction work was also carried out to ensure that no stone was left unturned in ensuring transparency and accuracy in the work.

“How can this huge sum of Rs2.5 billion be misappropriated despite having different watchdog and audit authorities to monitor the technical and financial matters of the provincial government departments. He said most of these schemes were related to the rehabilitation of roads.

“People of different areas of Attock district were complaining about the dilapidated conditions of the roads and those complaints were being sent to Deputy Commissioner Office Attock and to the Chief Minister Office as well,” he said.

He said the caretaker government at that time directed that the dilapidated roads in the district be rehabilitated.

Responding to a question, Mr Shah said as per the caretaker government’s directives, the officers concerned were asked to initiate development work after fulfilling all formalities.

Responding to another question, Mr Shah said contracts of rehabilitation and maintenance of different roads in the district as well as other schemes were awarded according to law and duly approved by the relevant authorities.

It may be recalled here that Punjab Governor Sardar Saleem Haider on May 21 directed the Chief Minister Office to look into the misappropriation of Rs2.5 billion funds of the district.

Published in Dawn, May 28th, 2024