Zero Point Interchange: Senate body concerned over CDA contract to ‘blacklisted firm'

[Naveed Yaseen]

* Committee directs CDA to furnish inquiry report, get surety bond from firm as precaution
* Calls for futuristic vision to avoid traffic mess on 7th and Jinnah avenues
* Expresses displeasure at major development projects’ cost escalation

Staff Report

ISLAMABAD: Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat, Inter-Provincial Coordination and Special Initiatives on Saturday expressed serious concern over award of Zero Point Interchange construction contract to a ‘blacklisted firm’.

Intimation: The committee, which met at the Parliament House under the chairmanship of Senator Shahid Hassan Bugti, directed the Cabinet Secretariat to immediately intimate all government divisions and departments not to engage the firm concerned for execution of any other project, since Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) has suspended its license.

Inquiry: It also directed the Cabinet Secretariat to thoroughly probe why the Capital Development Authority (CDA) highups did not initiate timely action and let the firm continue the project. The committee desired that the inquiry report be furnished to it at the earliest.

Surety bond: It instructed CDA to ask the firm concerned to furnish a surety bond and also recover the cost of consultants hiring from it as a pre-cautionary measure. “A good deal of apprehensions are present in the minds of the people and we must make every effort to address and remove those concerns,” the committee observed.

Cost escalation: The Senate body also expressed its concern and displeasure over cost escalation with regard to a number of major development projects in Islamabad like the rehabilitation of Islamabad Highway from Faizabad to Airport turning, construction of underpasses on Shaheed-e-Millat Road, construction of underpass and flyover at the intersection of Jinnah Avenue and Faisal Avenue.

Bugti said the sole reason for this sorry state of affairs was lack of accountability. “We will continue to face such disasters as long as the element of accountability remains missing from our national thinking and planning,” he observed.

The committee underlined the need for fixing responsibility and punitive action against the responsible persons to avoid mishaps in future. It also called for a ‘futuristic vision’ to avoid traffic mess being seen at places like 7th Avenue and Jinnah Avenue.

Earlier, the CDA submitted that the Consultancy Contract for design and construction supervision was awarded to M/s ECIL in December 2006 by CDA well before the collapse of Sher Shah Bridge in Karachi (on 1st September, 2007). Pakistan Engineering Council, which is the statutory body to regulate the engineering profession in the country, has not provided CDA with any clear instructions to withdraw the contract, as it was an ongoing project, the CDA officials informed the committee. As of today, CDA is not in a possession of any notification regarding the black listing of the said firm M/s Engineering Consultants International (Pvt) Ltd.

Senators Shirala Malik, Kalsoom Parveen, Begum Najma Hameed, Rehana Yahya Baloch, Fauzia Fakhar-uz-Zaman, Abdul Ghaffar Qureshi and Muhammad Zahid Khan attended the meeting.

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