PAT rejects TI’s claim regarding reduction in corruption

Reacting to TI’s ranking of Pakistan on Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2014, PAT Secretary General Khurram Nawaz Gandapur has asked the Transparency International (TI), which has issued a character certificate of reduction in rulers’ corruption, to answer why the Minister for Water and Power made payment to IPPs despite the TI’s detection of corruption to tune of Rs. 1000 billion in power sector and its instruction not to go ahead with the payment due to illegality involved. He said that IPPs have been fleecing the exchequer in the neighbouthood of Rs. 100 billion annually, in collusion with the vested interests but the rulers and their institutions are keeping mum over this massive leakage of public funds. He said that what area it is in which volume of corruption has decreased?

The PAT Secretary General further stated that Nandipur Power Project is a classic case of the rulers’ corruption, bad governance and financial irregularities. He said that this project which was to be completed with Rs. 34 billion witnessed a massive cost escalation to Rs. 57 billion till its completion and despite the notice of the cost escalation by the federal cabinet, no third party audit of the project has so far been done. He said that now the state of affairs was such that the rulers are leasing out this project of Rs. 57 billion to a foreign company at a lease of Rs. 60 million annually. He asked, was such a whopping sum of Rs.57 billion spent so that it could be leased out to a foreign company?

Khurram Nawaz Gandapur said that another recent scandal of present rulers pertains to over-billing where the masses were fleeced to the tune of Rs. 70 billion cumulatively. He said that despite the Prime Minister’s assurance, not even a single penny has been returned to consumers. He said that a huge sum of Rs. 150 billion, given to district governments in Punjab, remains unaudited to this day, adding that these are just minor examples of mega corruption during the current year. He said that it is a matter of surprise that the TI is giving a certificate of reduction of corruption when reality belies the claim.