Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The three-member fact finding committee of the Senate will visit Gujranwala today (Friday) to detect the factors behind corruption worth billions of rupees in Nandipur Power Project and investigate the burning of official documents regarding the project by Khawaja Saad Rafiq.

The committee will present its report in the Upper House of parliament on the mega corruption scam and financial and administrative irregularities in the 425-megawatt Nandipur Power Project.

The standing committee had made a subcommittee for finding the facts regarding the project. The chairman of the committee is PTI’s Senator Nauman Wazir Khattak, while PML-N’s Muhammad Nisar Khan and ANP’s Daud Khan are members. The committee will fix the responsibility of taking the cost of the project to Rs 59 billion from its original cost of Rs 42 billion.

Nandipur Power Project was commenced in 2008 but even after a lapse of nine years the project is still incomplete. The agreement of Nandipur Power Project was signed between Pakistan Electric Power Company (PEPCO) and Chinese company Zong Fong Electric Corporation in January 2008, under which Pakistan had paid 10 percent of the project’s cost as a down payment to the Chinese firm. The project was to be completed in 2011.

Before commencing the work on the project, the Chinese firm had sought the legal opinion of the Ministry of Water and Power and a summary was forwarded to the ministry in 2010 during the time of the PPP government. However, the summary was pending on the table of former Federal Minister for Water and Power, Dr Babar Awan, until 2012, when the president of the Chinese company made a strong protest against the government of Pakistan for delaying the project deliberately.

Heavy machinery and equipment for the Nandipur project arrived at Karachi port in 2010, but the government dumped it in the open for almost two years, which turned the expensive equipment into scrap due to rusting.

On this, the Chinese company demanded $85 million as compensation for the machinery because of its deterioration due to the negligence of the Pakistani authorities, but the government refused to pay the amount to the firm as the rusted equipment and machinery were of no use.

However, in 2013, a negotiation was held between the big bosses of Ministry of Water and Power and executives of the company and as a result, Zong Fong Corporation started work on the project.

In 2014, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif inaugurated the project but in 2015, the machinery of the project became out of order due to use of substandard oil. Soon, it was made useable again.