Minister for Defense and Water and Power Khawaja Muhammad Asif has asked the National Accountability (NAB) chairman to complete the investigation of losses worth Rs 113 billion to the national exchequer due to delay in the execution of the Nandipur power project.
The inquiry has faced delays due to the non-cooperation of ministries of finance and water and power in calculating the exact losses to the power project. So far the bureau has not established the role of the former federal government in the losses of the power project.
However, the bureau has established that Rs 14 billion were lost during the on-going tenure of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).
Official documents available with Pakistan Today further disclose that the ministry of water and power has also shown its inability to the NAB in the calculation of the exact loss of the Nandipur power project. The NAB has requested the finance ministry to help assist the bureau in calculating the loss but to no avail.
Even the commission constituted by the Supreme Court has stated in its report that “the commission is also handicapped in the absence of expert opinions on the subject. Therefore, no actual figure of loss can be determined by the commission.” However, the NAB has completed its initial inquiry into the allegations of unnecessary delays in the execution of the project.
The NAB has also requested the Auditor General (AG)’s office for losses pointed out by their office in the project. The office replied that a special audit was in process and that the departmental audit committee will hold a meeting shortly to firm up the observations.
One of the concluding points of the report is that the main reason of cost escalation of Rs8billion in the revised PC-1 was the prolonged holding of the legal opinion by the ministry of law, justice, and parliamentary affairs.
It is also learned that Khawaja Asif has been trying hard to receive a clean chit from the NAB before the expiry of on-going constitutional tenure of the PML-N and prior to the removal or retirement of the present NAB chairman. “Khawaja Asif intends to drop the burden of billions of rupees losses to the exchequer due to unnecessary delay in the execution of Nandipur power project on the shoulders of the former federal government of the Pakistan People’s Party through the NAB investigation,” the sources said.
The Supreme Court of Pakistan constituted a one-man commission on October 26, 2011, after a petition was filed by Khawaja Asif on October 5, 2011. The court mandated the commission to determine whether there was any negligence on the part of executive authorities which had caused delays in completion of the projects and to declare the losses and those responsible for them.
The commission’s report submitted on April 9, 2012, said, “There is negligence on the part of executive authorities of the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Government of Pakistan which has caused the delay in completion of the project. The Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs is responsible for causing a delay in completion of the documents. A loss of more than Rs113billion has been caused to the national exchequer.”
