Daily Times

An inquiry has been launched into the alleged irregularities in the award of Rs 61.6 million contracts by the Forest Department in Rawalpindi.

According to details, a tender for the purchase of 300,000 saplings of different fruit and flower and 800kg seed was announced by the Forest Department of Rawalpindi Division on the website of Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA). The bidding of the said contract was schedule on November 28, 2019.

Naveed Bahadur – a contractor – has filed a complaint to the conservator of the forest – Rawalpindi claims that when he polled his tender including quotation and pay order in poll box the official of the forest department forced him and other contractors out from the hall.

He said, when the poll box is opened, his tender documents and pay order was missing from the box, he informed the bidding committee members to probe the matter and suspended the bidding process until this matter is resolved. The committee members assured him that the contract will not be awarded to anyone unless the matter of document theft from the poll box is resolved, but later they announced that the contract is awarded to a blue-eyed contractor.

Naveed added, when he went to the police station to register First Information Report (FIR) of his document theft, at that time he received a phone call from his relative namely Suleman saying that he had received phone call from opponent contractors and saying that his document will be returned to him on next day, do not register FIR.

On the next day (Saturday), he received his original documents from a property dealer namely Ibrahim in Islamabad in presence of the Salman and Imtiaz.

How is it possible that sealed documents went missing from the poll box without the consent of forest department officials?

He appeals to the Minister Imran Khan, and Chief Minister Usman Buzdar to kick off the corrupt officer from the forest department before launching Billion Tree Project.

The conservator of Forest – Abid Gondal – on the application of Naveed Bahadur has initiated the inquiry of the matter.

While exclusively talking with Daily Times, Abid Gondal said, after a complaint of alleged irregularities, an inquiry is initiated and all this will be dealt on merit. However, Divisional Forest Officer Ijaz Ali refused to comment on the matter.