Daily Times

The government in a fresh move approved the contract of Neelum-Jhelum Hydro Power Project’s (NJHPP) incompetent chief financial officer (CFO) in violation of the Public Procurement Regulation (PPRA), reliable sources in Ministry of Water Resource disclosed to Daily Times. The Board of Directors (BOD) in its last meeting approved the contract of the CFO which was opposed earlier by same NJHPP BoD on reservations of having no relevant qualification as well facing various sexual harassment charges in different courts filed by the employees of the project the documents available with this scribe added. It is pertinent to mention that NJHPP’s 47th BoD meeting, held on May, 30 2019, had decided against the award of a fresh contract to NJHPP CFO Hamid Mehmood. The board had maintained, “In case of Hamid Mahmood, propose of appointment (dated June 24, 2016) does not provide any provision for extension of contract beyond three years. Therefore, a fresh hiring process may be initiated on a competitive basis as per PPRA ordinance 2002. But the source inside ministry revealed said post was not advertised in any national Urdu and English newspaper neither advertise on the official web according to the PPRA rules and regulation and the last BOD meeting suggested that the post will be advertise in newspapers and official website according to the rules and regulations of the PPRA which is illegal and should be stop immediately. Neelum-Jhelum Hydropower Station is located in the Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Muzaffarabad area, and has an installed capacity of 969MW. According to the available information, in 2007, a Chinese consortium, Gezhouba Group and China National Machinery Import and Export Corporation, were offered a contract to construct the dam and power station. The cost of the project has since gone up by Rs96 billion, from Rs404.321 billion to Rs500.343 billion, due to delaying tactics and negligence on part of the management. Another source in the NJHPP said that the high-profile project was still waiting for the hiring of new staff in Muzaffarabad, as liability period Chinese engineers would end this year. According to the rules, new staff should be hired during the liability period so that training from Chinese counterparts.