The Auditor General of Pakistan in his latest audit report on BRT Peshawar documented losses, wastages, unauthorized variations, irregular payments of billions of rupees and observed that the project’s planning was faulty and construction work started in the absence of detailed engineering design.
A copy of the report shared with The News by an official source in the KP government shows that the ADB had well in time identified the risk that “political pressure to fast-track the project due to General Elections 2018 will undermine both design and implementation of the project”.
The ADB also did not want the DED (Detailed Engineering Design) to be developed on the basis of preliminary design.
But still, the provincial government did not care about any such warning and demonstrated that its “planning process was so shallow that it couldn’t even calculate the appropriate and reasonable completion time”.
The report said it was seen throughout the construction phase that the narrow route (selected for the project) with very little Right of Way was never the feasible option for the construction of a BRT Corridor.
The report pointed out unauthorized variations of Rs10.4 billion; loss of Rs200 million due to payment of excess quantity of pile concrete;
loss of Rs54.8 million due to non-recovery of cost of dismantled material; payment of Rs95 million as salaries without approved pay structure; non-deposit of profit worth Rs12 million into government treasury earned from saving account;
unauthorized payment of Rs45 million to officers; interest worth Rs12 million earned not reflected in financial statement; contradiction in approved PC-I and business model regarding annual subsidy of Rs1.6 billion; wasteful expenditure of Rs716 million on beautification, construction of roads and electrification;
premature procurement of BRT buses spending US$ 7.9 million; the warranty period of these buses may expire as well as wear and tear will occur with no fare revenue from these buses; loss of Rs10 million due to depreciation of buses waiting to be brought on road;
construction supervision contract worth Rs615 million and US$1.97 million awarded without fulfilling the criteria for performance assessment; non-implementation of penalty/liquidated damages worth Rs1.9 billion etc.
