KARACHI: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has sought details of contracts awarded by the Sindh Irrigation Department in the last 10 years.
Sources in the Irrigation Department told The News that NAB’s action has caused panic in the Irrigation Department due to the alleged issues of irregularities in award of contracts and advance payments of billions of rupees to blue-eyed contractors.
The sources said some former ministers of the Irrigation Department, a political personality, who is said to be actual in-charge of the department and dozens of officers, mainly chief engineers of the same department, are under NAB’s radar and action is likely to be taken against them.
In this regard, NAB has sent a letter (copy of which is available) to the secretary of the Sindh Irrigation Department, asking him to submit the details of development works of the last 10 years, including technical sanction of all estimates workwise from chief engineers, details of contracts with advertisements, details of all tender process, Sindh Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (SPPRA) guideline documents, bid process, measurement books, bills and expenditure statement, besides a seven-point proforma has also been sent for submitting information.
The NAB authorities have also directed the secretary irrigation to provide details of all tenders, details of allocations, budget and all particulars, along with the documents. Apart from the recent development in July 2021, NAB Karachi Board has recommended for converting an inquiry into an investigation against Ghulam Yasin Qureshi, former director Ghotki Feeder Canal of the Sindh Irrigation Department and some other officers for owning assets beyond known sources of income.
On the other hand, a special team of NAB on September 3, 2020 had raided three different residents of former Irrigation Minister Sohail Anwar Sial in Larkana, who is also under investigation by NAB for owning assets beyond known sources of income.
