PESHAWAR: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) moaned about the “lackluster cooperation” of the administrative departments of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government in the investigation into mega corruption cases, including embezzlement in Covid-19 fund, Billion Tree Tsunami Project (BTTP) and Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project.
The NAB officials said that documents, including details of award of contracts, expenditure and procurement for mega projects are not being provided despite repeated requests. The probing team has once again requested for the provision of requisite details to move forward the investigation process.
The administration of respective departments, including Local Government, Health Department, Transport Department and Rehabilitation and Resettlement, have used billions of rupees but they are not ready to provide its record to the NAB staff for investigation. Besides this, details of contractors, procurement process, record of audit objections, details of payments and progress so far in these projects have been sought from the administrative departments.
The NAB team wrote letters to KP Establishment Departments to provide details of all projects as soon as possible so that the investigation can progress. The provincial government has strictly directed administrative departments to provide complete records the NAB officials. But, sources said, departments do not have complete records, while none of the departments have an details of expenditure of BRT, Billion Tree Tsunami and Coronavirus funds.
The departments concerned have also organized high-level meetings in the past few days in which officials were directed to bring details of these projects but the official records have not been collected so far. The NAB is likely to expedite the probe into the three projects in the next few days. According to sources, more than Rs100 billion funds have been spent on Covid-19, BRT Peshawar and Billion Tree Tsunami projects but the departments concerned yet to provide its complete details.
