ISLAMABAD: In a comprehensive report, the Auditor General of Pakistan has unveiled cases of fraud and misappropriation within the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA) and its provincial subordinate in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P). The report covering the period between 2011 and 2012 caused an uproar in the K-P Assembly, with members demanding ERRA’s immediate dissolution.
ERRA and its subsidiary department, the Provincial Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority’s (PERRA) performances point to massive fraud and financial irregularities, according to the audit report.
The K-P Assembly in a unanimously adopted resolution last week also demanded the transfer of funds to provincial government so that it could reconstruct earthquake affected areas in the province through its own departments.
According to the audit report, PERRA’s Earthquake Emergency Assistance Project’s deputy director from Abbottabad awarded the contract of construction of a road in violation of the rules and procedure. The contract of a single road was split into two phases without any justification by the contract awarding official. Giving details of the financial irregularities, the report revealed that the official was not authorised to award a project worth Rs666.253 million without approval from superiors.
The report further pointed out misappropriation in awarding contracts worth Rs130.987 million, by PERRA’s Abbottabad office for furniture for various schools.
The audit report also highlighted around 22 cases of fraud and financial irregularities in PERRA’s accounts which included unjustified payments of Rs447.3 million, due to lack of rate analysis of a property.
PERRA is also responsible for the loss of Rs378.53 million due to non-imposition and deduction of liquidated damages of the contractors, according to the report, which concluded that both the central and the provincial rehabilitation authorities, failed to satisfy auditors on its observations despite repeated attempts.
Meanwhile, K-P PERRA chief Kamran Zeb, while talking to The Express Tribune said that he had no knowledge about the auditor general’s report. He further added that the K-P Assembly had not called for the abolition of PERRA.
“The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly passed a resolution demanding dissolution of ERRA, and not PERRA,” he said. “PERRA has nothing to do with it.”
Earlier, during a debate on the resolution in the K-P Assembly, an independent member from Hazara, Mushtaq Ghani recalled that more than 80,000 people were killed and 600,000 had been displaced in the 2005 earthquake in K-P’s Hazara district.
Bitterly criticising the ERRA and PERRA for their failure in discharging their responsibilities in the quake-hit areas, the MPA said that earthquake survivors after eight years were still living without shelter.
He had alleged that billions of rupees were provided to both agencies but nothing substantial had been achieved in terms of rehabilitation and reconstruction.
