ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau has allowed a Turkish ship-mounted power plant, Karkay, to leave the country after recovering Rs1.65 billion during investigation into the Rs22 billion rental power projects (RPPs) scam.

“Under a recent agreement between NAB and Karkay, we have received two pay orders amounting to Rs1.65 billion,” the bureau’s spokesman Zafar Iqbal told Dawn on Tuesday.

Under the agreement, he said, the Turkish firm was free to return home.

The firm obtained $79 million as mobilisation advance from the government for setting up the plant to supply 232 megawatts to the national grid under RPPs plan to overcome the power crisis, but did not install the plant within the stipulated time and failed to supply the required electricity. According to a NAB official, it supplied only 60MW.

The spokesman said the firm had earlier claimed damages amounting to $291 million and applied for international arbitration but it agreed during the NAB investigation to pay $17.2 million.

“Under the agreement, the firm also assured us that it would not go for international arbitration,” the spokesman said.

He said Karkay had brought four ships to the Karachi coast and two of them were returning to Turkey.

It was learnt that a transmission line costing Rs1 billion installed to provide power to the national grid had also been cut.

The Supreme Court, following marathon hearings into the huge corruption case, had declared the RPPs illegal and ruled that advance payments made by the government should be recovered.