Irregularities surface in award of WSSP contracts

PESHAWAR: Serious irregularities have been unearthed in award of contracts by the multi-billion Water and Sanitation Services Peshawar (WSSP) that caused huge financial losses to the company.

The irregularities were highlighted in the internal audit report of the company that was formally submitted to the chief executive officer of the company in November 2019. However, no action could be taken in line with the audit report that clearly identified the irregularities and recommended penalty.

According to the report titled, “Revenue Enhancement Through Customer Survey (GIS)” (copy available with The News), the contract for survey was awarded to the same company first in 2015 and then in 2018 to identify means for revenue enhancement. Both the contracts cost a handsome amount of Rs40 million, but it failed to bring any financial benefit to the company.”

“Internal Audit learnt that the same survey titled as “Consumer Survey of WSSP Peshawar” had been conducted under WSP World Bank in 2015 for Rs11,000,000 (11 million). The surveyor was same The Urban Unit and Manager MIS was the Focal Person for the activity,” the report said.

The same survey was given to the same surveyor in 2018, but this time at a cost of Rs29,000,000 (29 million). The second survey was just a replica of the first one, which too didn’t consist of real time data and thus failed to help enhance the revenue of the company,” according to reliable sources.

The audit report in its findings said that the activity did not result any economic value to WSSP as the customers remained the same in 2018 as they were in 2015 i.e. 57,000.

The payment of Rs11,000,000 was wastage of financial resources and there was no value for money. No records were made available for 2015 survey so beneficiaries can’t be determined, the report added.

It pointed out that the process of competitive bidding was not complied and contract was awarded against the KPPRA Rules 2014 that resulted in mis-procurement.

The assignment of survey 2018-2019 was generated with the same scope and objectives of survey of 2015.

If 124,246 customers were identified in 2015 then by urbanization and population growth WSSP customers database could have reached at 150,000 in 2018 whereas WSSP had same 57,000 customers in 2018 and repeated the survey, the audit report stated.

Even payment to the surveyor was made against the terms of reference (TOR) and without having satisfactory review of the contract, the report highlighted.

The report recommended that further payments should not be released as the contract expired on 19-11-2019 and penalty should be imposed on the surveyor.

The report also recommended appropriate disciplinary action against those involved in the irregularities.

It is worth mentioning here that both the contracts had been awarded when formed Chief Executive Officer Engineer Khanzeb was heading the company.

The report clearly mentioned the procurement criteria, which was badly violated. Even the procurement manager had opposed the award of the contract, but his reservations were totally ignored, the report added.