The $21 billion LNG question

ISLAMABAD: Have we signed a LNG contract or haven’t we? Why is the contract shrouded in clouds of secrecy? Doesn’t secrecy on the part of the government breeds doubts on the part of the public? Isn’t LNG being bought with public money? Why should the government limit public access to

By Dr Farrukh Saleem
March 23, 2015
ISLAMABAD: Have we signed a LNG contract or haven’t we? Why is the contract shrouded in clouds of secrecy? Doesn’t secrecy on the part of the government breeds doubts on the part of the public? Isn’t LNG being bought with public money? Why should the government limit public access to the terms of the contract?
Have we signed a take-or-pay $272,000 per day contract or not? Isn’t contract transparency in our law books? Isn’t complete disclosure on part of the government in our law books? Why shouldn’t the contracting process be fully open? Why shouldn’t tendering be fully open? Why shouldn’t the actual award be fully open? Why shouldn’t the content of the contract be fully open?
To be certain, “contract transparency provides incentives to improve on the quality of contracting.” To be certain, secrecy in government contracts is not in Pakistan’s interests. To be certain, “secrecy hides incompetence, mismanagement and corruption”. To be certain, secrecy actually “exposes a government to shady deals.”
Here are world LNG estimated March 2015 landed prices: India $6.90; China $6.60; Japan $7.00 and Korea $7.00. Doesn’t the public have a right to full access to all contracts signed by the government elected by the public? Shouldn’t the government disclose contracts in advance of the actual award? For the record, in the Philippines, “power plants built under corrupt circumstances led to inflated electrical prices.” Why shouldn’t the government voluntarily begin publishing all contracts?
On 27 February 2014, the Open Knowledge Foundation launched a new global campaign, ‘Stop Secret Contracts’. According to the Foundation, “secret contracting leads to fraud, corruption, and unaccountability. It means the loss of millions of dollars of public money every year.”
Are we getting a fair deal? Why is the government creating doubts in the minds of voters?Federal Petroleum Minister Khaqan Abbasi was reported as saying that LNG deal was concluded in a transparent manner and details about it would be shared by public shortly.