PESHAWAR, Oct 10: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police on Wednesday admitted violation of rules regarding advance payment to suppliers for weapons during a meeting of the provincial assembly’s Public Accounts Committee here.

Speaker of the assembly Kiramatullah Chagharmatti chaired the meeting at the Assembly Secretariat, where participants scrutinised the process to procure weapons, ammunitions and other equipment valuing billions of rupees for police between 2008 and 2011.

The audit officials said police had made 70 to 90 per cent payment to suppliers in advance in violation of the notice inviting tender (NIT).

According to them, 90 per cent of the Rs4.33 billion payment was made to Majid & Sons and his group Al Moize, Shahid Traders and others despite the fact that their rates, especially of Majid & Sons, were two to three times higher than those floated by other bidders.

The committee was informed that according to the procedure, the government had to pay amount to suppliers or contractors after receiving consignment, but police made the payment before the consignment’s procurement.

“In one case, 90 per cent of the money was paid to the supplier before delivery of weapons and ammunition, while in other cases, 70 per cent payment was made to dealers in clear violation of NIT,” said an auditor.

The committee members said had police mentioned 90 per cent advancement payment in tenders, more bidders would have participated in the tendering process.

Deputy inspector general Dr Mohammad Suleman initially contested audit paras and declared the deals according to the rules, but later retracted his statement.

Responding to another para, Dr Suleman admitted that ammunitions purchased for police from Wah Ordnance Factory was faulty and the department opted for those made in China.

“Cartridges made in Wah Factory cracked after firing and therefore, the deal was cancelled,” he told the committee when asked about the reasons for purchasing weapons and ammunitions from Chinese companies.

He added that Wah Factory also supplied weapons and ammunitions to armed forces. The PAC members regretted non-production of record.

“It shows that you people have no regard for PAC, which is the highest forum of the assembly,” said Mr Chagharmatti.

He said the relevant departments should ensure timely provision of necessary record to the committee. The matter was deferred until the next meeting.

The committee deferred discussion on audit para related to non-production of record about district police office in Tank. The audit department observed that during financial year 2005-06, record of the Rs34.105 million expenditure was not submitted to the office of DPO Tank.

It added that despite directives from the provincial police officer, record had not been produced. The committee asked the department to keep audit paras intact until the record was produced within a month.