ISLAMABAD - The Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue on Wednesday directed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to complete the investigation of the payment of Rs480 billion to the Independent Power Producers (IPPs) to clear the circular debt in four months.
Similarly, the committee has also asked the NAB to complete the investigation of the alleged corruption in the Multan Metro bus project in two months.
The committee which met under the chair of Senator Saleem Mandviwalla has reviewed the alleged corruption cases that were referred by the committee to the NAB for investigations.
The officials of the NAB informed the committee that they had sought the record of payment of Rs480 billion to IPPS from the ministry of water and power. The commission would review the process of clearing due amount of the IPPs whether the government had followed the rules and regulations or not.
After completing the initial process, the NAB would consider to initiate the inquiry of the case.
Meanwhile, they also informed the committee that NAB is also investigating the alleged corruption in the Multan Metro bus project.
The committee was informed that inquiry of the case was ordered in November last year. The commission is reviewing every aspect of the case including money laundering.
They further informed that Joint Investigation Team (JIT) had already formed on the matter.
Mandviwalla said that NAB should not include officials of Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) in JIT. The committee directed NAB to complete investigation in two months.
The committee members said that SECP had given false statement regarding Chinese company Jiangsu Yabaite Co Ltd.
The committee also reviewed issue of alleged manipulation of share prices of Bank of Punjab (BoP). The NAB informed that NAB chairman had recently ordered the inquiry of the case.
The committee has asked to complete the investigation in two months. The parliamentary committee had asked NAB to investigate the alleged underwriting of shares along with details of shares purchased and sold by the management and directors of BoP from January 2015 to March 2017.
Meanwhile, the Sub-committee of Senate Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue, Economic Affairs and Narcotics Control in its meeting on Wednesday heard FBR regarding a number of pending inquiries and their progress.
The committee disposed off some of the inquiries, called for re-opening of a few closed inquiries and decided to wait for completion of process of one inquiry.
The FBR chairman informed the committee that they has constituted teams to investigate the corruption cases of the department.
The meeting was held under the chairmanship of Senator Mohsin Aziz here at the Parliament House on Wednesday and was attended among others by Senators Mohsin Leghari, Saud Majeed, Chairman Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), Member Administration FBR and other senior officers of FBR.
Regarding inquiry into 265 missing containers, the committee decided to refer the matter to the upcoming standing committee on Finance which will be formed after Senate elections to look into the matter further because the inquiry conducted so far is not satisfactory. The committee asked FBR to collect concrete data whether the importers involved were identified, if yes what action was taken against them, who was the inquiry officer and what measures were taken between the time of reporting of the case and the suo moto case of Sindh High Court.
The committee also discussed the means by which inquiry process can be made more effective and can be completed sooner than the present procedures.