A recent audit of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has revealed that its flagship project—Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC)—has irregularities worth Rs.51.6 billion. This is an exorbitant amount that has been left unaccounted for and the authorities have been left confused as to how this could have happened. More so, who is responsible for the lack of oversight that enabled billions of rupees to be spent in this manner. Surely this casts a shadow of doubt over the FBR’s credibility, especially considering that most justifications given by the body were rejected by the auditor for being false. At this point, the entire project must be scrutinised and reassessed.
Most of the irregularities have centered around the engineering procurement and construction aspect of the project but the manner in which the contract was awarded is also problematic. It was directly given to the National Logistics Cell (NLC) without the competitive bidding process or rate analysis. This is particularly unusual for a project worth billions, and it should have raised eyebrows amongst the authorities from the get go. If not this, then multiple other procedures followed while procuring and paying contractors should have cast a shadow of doubt over the legitimacy of all that was happening under the banner of the CAREC.
The audit report revealed that Rs.10.49 billion was paid to a contractor without a detailed measurement of work carried out; Rs.1.76 billion was paid for unnecessary construction; Rs.1.35 billion was given out as ‘excess payment’; Rs.915 million was paid off without the verification of receipts, accounts and vouchers; Rs.478 million was paid for 270 security personnel when only 20 were physically deployed on the Torkham border; and, the FBR failed to deduct Rs.787.15 million as income tax from the contractor. These are serious oversights worth billions of rupees that could have been utilised appropriately to create something that would have benefited the country in the long-term. Instead, they were wasted or absorbed by known entities.
How did the FBR let this slide under its supervision is a question that an inquiry must ask, along with where the money went. The funds for the CAREC were given by the Asian Development Bank and rest assured a progress report will be due soon. If we have nothing to show for the exorbitant amounts spent, we will be in deep trouble.