New Islamabad Airport: Massive irregularities unveiled in contracts, tenders
Shares
ISLAMABAD: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the parliament on Tuesday formed a special committee to probe irregularities in awarding of work for aircraft stand equipment of the New Islamabad International Airport (NIIA).
The three-member committee, which includes Sherry Rehman, Mushahid Hussain Syed and Sardar Aashiq Gopang, will submit its report with the PAC within a period of one month.
The PAC meeting was held here under the chairmanship of Syed Khursheed Shah, which was attended by other members, including Syed Naveed Qamar, Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho, Dr Arif Alvi, Azam Khan Swati, Mushahid Hussain Syed, Sardar Aashiq Gopang, Sherry Rehman, Abdul Rashid Godil and Mehmood Khan Achakzai.
During the meeting, the body noted that the work was awarded to M/s ADELTE/HRL JV at cost of Rs6 billion, which was 25.53 per cent higher than the engineer provisional estimate of Rs4,771.862 million, and 232.89 per cent higher than the PC-1 provision of Rs2,572 million without revision of PC-1.
Audit maintained that unjustified delay in tendering process caused awarding of work at higher rates without revision of PC-1, which was due to weak internal controls.
Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) Secretary Irfan Qadir briefed the body about the details of awarding of work, and said the Islamabad International Airport was ready for operation. Upon which, the PAC members have decided to visit the airport in the coming days.
The committee also decided to form a three-member special committee to probe into the matter of awarding of work in the project higher than the estimate.
The PAC noted that additional work of Rs587.157 million was granted to M/s Thales-Slex-GE JV companies regarding special baggage handling system for the airport’s passenger terminal building on the basis of negotiation rather than approval of revised PC-1.
The audit also revealed that the contractors in the joint ventures were not registered with the Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC). The lowest bid for the project was worth Rs3,916.801 million, but work was awarded to the above companies at agreement cost of Rs4,503.958 million in violation of the law.
