DERA GHAZI KHAN-The billboards and hoardings are illegally installed in the Dera Ghazi Khan without official permission and documentation, various government officers admitted.
In addition, the corrupt mafia of Municipal Corporation (MC) has destroyed the record of hoardings. That is why; the files concerned are not available in the offices of Revenue Branch of MC and the Parks & Horticulture Authority (PHA) Dera Ghazi Khan.
For the last many years, officers' blue-eyed contractor Ejaz Mahmood Abbasi has been enjoying contract of these hoardings under the umbrella of corrupt mafia o fMC and some influential people. Every year, he succeeds to get the contract of advertisement in the city by violating the laws, sources disclosed.
According to The Punjab Local Government (Auctioning of Collection Rights) Rules, 2003 Section (I) (IV), any person who is defaulter in respect of any dues to a local government, is not competent to enter into agreement under the law and shall not be eligible to be a contractor. However, in the current financial year 2017-18, Ejaz Mahmood who is defaulter of MC DG Khan in respect of dues about more than 3.5 million rupees, is enjoying the illegally awarded contract of PHA DG Khan.
The director admin & finance marketing at PHA has awarded him the contract by ignoring the rules and regulations and condition No. 5 of tender (bid auction), which is a criminal misconduct.
Moreover, the contract was awarded him on August 29, 2017 through fake auction proceeding by concealment of facts and after getting kickbacks, the sources said. They added all the five contractors were not true participants, they were managed for auction bid on that day and contract was awarded on price of 6.4 million rupees, less than fixed reserve price of 8 million rupees.
Moreover, no proper data of hoarding boards, tri-vision, new sign, MMT, wall-panel, sky sign, poly sign, fixed sign, posters and screen is available at the offices of PHA and MC DG Khan.
When contacted contractor, Ejaz admitted that he was defaulter of 3.5 million rupees of MC DG Khan and has not data of billboards and shops etc. His workers run the business in DG Khan.
Talking to The Nation, Director Engineering PHA/ XEN PHE Syed Ejaz Hussain Bukhari said the PHA had four times requested to Municipal Corporation administration for the provision of relevant record along with funds and also to take necessary steps for handing over all billboards of DG Khan City.
Four letters on the subject were sent to MC DG Khan on March 16, 17, July 4, 2017, July 17 and April 11, 2018 but to no avail.
When approached, the Municipal Officer Finance Amjad Hussain also confirmed that there no record of billboards was available. "I cannot explain the illegality of installed billboards because the files are not present in MC DG Khan," he said.