ISLAMABAD: The National Highways Authority (NHA) has completed 33 projects at increased cost, which was almost 13 percent more than the initial bid since 2008.

This was revealed before the sub-Committee on the Senate Standing Committee on Communications held here on Wednesday to identify causes for cost overruns only of completed/ongoing projects of the NHA from 2008 with a minimum overall cost of not less than one billion rupees.

The meeting was convened under the convenorship of Senator Saifullah Abro, those who attended included Senator Danesh Kumar and senior officers from the Ministry of Communications.

The sub-committee reviewed various completed and ongoing projects by the NHA from 2008 onwards, to identify cost overruns and the reasons for it.

The committee was informed that there were 33 projects that were completed at increased cost, which was almost 13 percent more than the initial bid.

The NHA officials informed the parliamentary panel that the main reasons for increased costs of projects were the difference between financial funds and financial phasing in PC-I; cost escalation; additional scope of work and land acquisition issues.

The committee reviewed the Larkana–Khairpur Bridge Project; Lakhi-Naudero–Larkana project; Zhob-Mughal Kot Project and the Larkana–MoenjoDaro Road Project. The Hyderabad–Sukkur Road project was also discussed in detail.

The committee showed displeasure regarding the submitted data and directed the ministry to provide a detailed summary of the prequalification and bidding process.

Convener Committee, Senator Saifullah Abro stressed the need for the prequalification process to be transparent and bids to be awarded on merit. He was of the view that following international standards in this regard would be helpful.

Informing the details of the projects from 2008, the NHA officials had earlier informed the committee that there were a total of 125 projects. Then, other details were provided in light of the committee’s questionnaire.

The committee convener in the last meeting stated that he had shared a list of some projects with the committee so that their details should also be provided and the details of all those projects including the estimated cost of any project, total cost, total number of companies participating in the tender, how many pre-qualifications, how many companies disqualified etc should be provided to the committee.

Further, bank reports of some projects were also sought but were also not provided. The committee convener said it was also observed that only 8 to 10 companies had been given those projects from 2009-21. Projects were awarded to different companies of the same contractor while big and reputed companies were deliberately disqualified, he stated.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022