On the instructions of Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, the Sindh Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) has registered four FIRs over the Rs4.4 billion fraud case of the right bank outfall drain-II (RBOD-II) against former chief engineer RBOD-II Munawar Bozdar, Waqar Ahmed Qadri, Imran Shaikh, Executive Engineer (XEN) Ghaffar Soomro, Altaf Memon and 16 others.
The RBOD-II scheme was conceived for the disposal of effluent from RBOD-I to the sea in an environment-friendly manner without affecting fresh water bodies like the Manchhar Lake and the Indus River.
The project was started in 2003 for Rs14 billion. The amount, however, was revised to Rs29.217 billion and later revised again to Rs61.985 billion. On November 12, 2018 a reference was received against some engineers, in which serious allegations related to irregularities in disbursement of funds were levelled.
On directives of the CM, a team of the irrigation department conducted an inquiry into the matter in April 2019 and the planning and development department referred the matter to the anti-corruption department for necessary action.
After an inquiry and technical inspection, ACE concluded that the so-called expenditure incurred against flood emergent works or flood damages worth Rs4.482 billion was completely bogus and it thereby caused huge loss to the public exchequer.
The inquiry findings submitted to ACE Chairman M Waseem said that standard operating procedure (SOP) for bill verification from consultants and its vetting from the relevant forum were not followed. There was no provision of flood damages in the approved PC-1 of RBOD.
The report also stated that the Sindh Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (SPPRA) rules and regulations were also violated as no tenders were called. Even the SPPRA rules for emergency award of contract were not invoked. On top of it, there was no flood-like situation in the river during the period in question. The years 2017 and 2018 were flood-free years and the flood damages shown in the year 2018 were highly surprising as the river was not even in a low flood situation in that year.
The inquiry also found out that many of the supply orders were issued in the month of May, June and July which are not flood periods.
The inquiry report states that if there were flood damages in 2017 and 2018 and it was necessary to address those damages, the matter should have been discussed in the project steering committee and reported to a competent authority.
According to the inquiry, most of the contractors to whom payments were made were not regular contractors who had no PEC certificate and likewise no history or experience of carrying out such nature of work.
The report says that while scrutinising the record of original works, it emerged that then Superintendent Engineer (SE) RBOD Imran Ahmed Shaikh invited tenders in 2014 without approval of the revised PC-1.
In addition to that, he allegedly issued work orders in the capacity of the SE for 88 contracts whereas those orders were to be issued by XENs. He also reportedly did not bother to get technical sanction and approval of the tenders. As he got the works started, liabilities of more than Rs4 billion were incurred and cleared after three years from the releases in question from the years 2017 and 2018.
In the FIR No 4/2020 dated March 3, 2020, an ACE Jamshoro circle officer has nominated chief engineer /PD RBOD-II Munawar Bozdar, now retired, Waqar Ahmed Qadri, superintendent engineer RBOD-, Imran Ahmed Shaikh, SE, Abdul Ghaffar Soomro, XEN Division, Altaf Ahmed Memon, Assistant XEN, and 16 others. Other FIRs have also been registered in this regard in which these suspects have been nominated.
