PEPRA employees illegally rewarded million from WB’s fund

ISLAMABAD: Millions of rupees were illegally rewarded to the employees of the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PEPRA) under the head of honorarium from the World Bank project’s funds meant for the “e-Pak Acquisition and Disposal System (EPADS)” — a project aimed to improve governance, management, transparency, accountability and quality of public procurement.

A fact-finding committee report has called for strict action against the PEPRA employees.

According to sources, PEPRA high-ups are allegedly attempting to hush up the fact-finding committee’s report.

The fact-finding committee was supposed to submit its report to the Prime Minister’s Office within seven days but it failed to do so.

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According to the report, former PEPRA Managing Director Maqbool Gondal, who also held the additional charge of CGA from 2021-2024 in conflict of interest, sanctioned over Rs100 million to himself and 134 other employees under the head of salaries from the said fund.

The report said that Rizan Malik and Gondal allocated over Rs05 million and over Rs4.7 million for themselves respectively without the approval of the PEPRA board.

Similarly, Deputy Director Human Resources Ali Taimor received more than Rs3.5 million under the head of honorarium.

According to the report, Gondal did not present EPDS concept note to the planning commission and the PEPRA board. During the probe, government documents and papers were also evaluated for alleged tampering and the EPADS concept note seemed to be found counterfeit and bogus. According to the report, ineligible people were inducted to technical and sensitive posts in the EPADS project.

E-procurement software could not be purchased according to the PEPRA rules and no work was done for the capacity building of employees.

The report has recommended disciplinary action against Gondal and other officials. It has recommended to recover the misused sum from the PEPRA officials and deposit it to the national exchequer.