Daily Times

Sir: Due to the implementation of the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules, the level of corruption in government contracts has subsided. But the corrupt government officials are now using “technicalities” to conduct illegal activities.
Take the example of the Punjab Chief Minister (CM), who had earlier claimed that Quaid-e-Azam Solar (QAS) Park was generating electricity at 80 percent efficiency, while in reality it was only eight percent. Similarly the CM Punjab claimed that they have reduced the per unit cost of generated electricity by Rs 14 per unit, but yesterday it was announced that after including debt-servicing the rate of per unit of electricity generated from QAS stands at Rs 24.5, the highest in the history of Pakistan.
Another example is the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources that has created a new terminology called Regasified Liquefied Natural Gas (RLNG) to help bypass the laws of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), while also incorrectly claiming that the home users of the natural gas will benefit from the project. But on deeper inspection, it was found that the Ministry was trying to import RLNG at the rate of $ 12 per unit, while the industrial standard rate was $ 8 per unit, and only Independent Power Producers and fertilizer manufacturers will benefit from RLNG.
Similarly, the Ministry of Agriculture is helping the sugar manufacturing mafia by declaring that only 9.5 kilogrammes sugar is made from 100 kilogrammes sugarcane, which is five kilogrammes less than what is the industrial standard of 14.5 kilogrammes produced from 100 kilogrammes sugarcane.
These and similar examples highlight the duplicity of the government officials in technical issues. The news channels and newspapers should hire technical personnel who can look into and investigate the technical aspects of government deals and highlight fake and incorrect statements made by government ministers and representatives.
SHAHRYAR KHAN BASEER
Peshawar