The sub-committee of the Senate Standing Committee on Communications met under the chairmanship of Saifullah Abro to identify causes for cost overruns only of completed/ongoing projects of the NHA from 2009 to 2021 with a minimum overall cost of not less than one billion rupees.
The Minister for Communications, Secretary Communications and the Chairman NHA were both absent for the meeting. “The minister and the chairman NHA should ensure their participation in the next meeting,” the chairman remarked
The committee convener said 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. The committee convener said it was also observed that only eight 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. During the meeting the infrastructure damage in Balochistan and Sindh due to recent rains was also discussed in detail.
