CLICK hit with a brick

Karachi beautification contract challenged in court

KARACHI: Before its implementation, the World Bank-funded programme for the rehabilitation of Karachi’s infrastructure has been embroiled in controversy following allegations of irregularities.

Two engineering firms have challenged the award of contracts for the Competitive and Livable City of Karachi (CLICK) project by the provincial local government department and the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation in the Sindh High Court.

The World Bank is providing Rs 32.2 billion for the CLICK project to transform the metropolis into a livable, inclusive and competitive megacity. The total cost of the project is around Rs 33.600 billion, to which the government of Sindh is contributing Rs 1.4 billion, approximately five per cent cost of the project.

Three project management units have been established in the Local Government, Excise & Taxation and Sindh Investment Departments to manage and coordinate project activities. Muhammad Rameez Khan and Raheel Shehzad, proprietor of MRK Associates, and Shahzad Yousuf Zai respectively have filed a lawsuit seeking a declaration that all the local government contracts of CLICK awarded in violation of the Sindh Public Procurement Rules, 2009 are illegal, unlawful, malafide, unconstitutional and liable to be cancelled.

Impleading the provincial secretary of local government, municipal commissioner KMC, Managing Director Sindh Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (SPPRA), Programme Director CLICK, Director General (Technical Services) KMC and Engineering Associates as defendants, the plaintiffs state that the metropolis is facing problems of deteriorated sewerage system, lack of clean water supply system, shabby roads and other issues. The provincial government initiated CLICK in collaboration with the World Bank to strengthen institutional and policy reforms and build capacity to improve services provision. The overall allocation for this programme is 230 million dollars. The pith and substance of the lawsuit revolve around a challenge through the illegal award of the procurement contract under the rules.

The plaintiffs claim that the regulatory authority is legally bound to advertise procurements over 300,000 rupees on its website as well as in the newspapers. According to the plaintiffs, this mandatory aspect of the governing law has been brutally butchered by the defendants, which forced them to initiate the litigation.

The General Secretary of Sindh Peoples Constructors Association had informed the provincial secretary of local government about the illegalities committed in the award of 16 contracts of work but no corrective measures were taken. The plaintiffs claim that they came across various documents showing that a false project under the name of “Emergency Road Repair Work” has also been conceived by the municipal commissioner KMC whereby contracts amounting to Rs3,600 million have been awarded to various contractors.

The contracts, they alleged, were awarded directly to the blue-eyed firms without any advertisement, depriving many potential participants in the open bidding process.

The plaintiff alleged local government department of adopting a malafide approach which they said could be gauged from the fact that to ensure pre-determined results and further to ensure the receipt of kickbacks and commissions, the local government department handed over the charge of the municipal commissioner to an officer Asif Jan on looking after basis. Asif Jan is a BPS-19 officer and has also been made Project Director, which is meant for an officer of BPS-20. Asif Jan is holding the key position in the Project. This fact, according to the plaintiffs, alone is sufficient to demonstrate how massive corruption is being ensured by appointing handpicked officers and by assigning them additional duties.

The defendants allege the plaintiffs, by acting hand in glove with each other have ensured their monopoly and only a few companies like Engineering Associates are being awarded contracts. The plaintiffs claim that they have a right to participate in the bidding process provided that the projects are advertised and the wealth is spread to all and sundry by publication and by hoisting the advertisement on the website of SPPRA.

Besides moving the court to cancel contracts in violation of SPPRA laws, the plaintiff also sought relief of permanently restraining the defendants from awarding any contract through direct contracting and/or in violation of Section 17 of the Sindh Public Procurement Act, 2009 and rules made thereunder and restraining them from releasing any amount for the direct contracts.

Justice Muhammad Shafi Siddiqui on the first hearing of the lawsuit issued notices to all the defendants directing them to submit the details of tenders so far issued for the works from the funds provided by the World Bank. Justice Siddiqui directed the respondents to also provide details of each tender, its amount and the nature of work for which it was awarded and the reasons for not implementing procurement rules.