ISLAMABAD - Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Lahore has registered an FIR against certain contractor firms for misappropriation of funds in a Pakistan Cricket Board project. Some PCB officials are also said to be involved in the wrongdoings.
The agency has found forgery in the Garhi Khudabakhsh stadium in Larkana against the Ever-shine contractors, the installation of the biomechanical lab at Gaddafi stadium and construction of Far End Pavilion in Lahore.
FIA is looking into the matter of fake bank guarantee of Rs. 8.6 million furnished to the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) by the contractors, thereby registering a case against the defaulters under sections 406, 420, 468 and 471 of the Pakistan Penal Code.
The PCB Officials are yet to get a clean chit from FIA under various cases including the construction of Gaddafi Stadium’s Far End Pavillion, Multan Cricket Academy, and Biomechanical lab’s construction in Gaddafi Stadium.
FIA is further investigating the scam involving PCB officials regarding the loss to the government exchequer in the afore-mentioned cases. According to the FIA, excess payment was made to M/S Rare Builders in Multan Academy contract, while fake payment was awarded to M/S Mecto in the Far End Pavillion project.
FIA had established that PCB paid a “mobilization cost” of Rs 5.6 million in addition to the bidding amount in the Multan Academy project. “This is illegal and it was not possible without the collusion of both parties”, an FIA Official told a news agency link>.
In the biomechanical lab project, the contractors had accused PCB’s Chief Operating Officer Subhan Ahmed of not releasing payments as agreed, however, the cricket’s governing body had denied the claims while maintaining that the officer involved in the scam had been terminated.