NAB arrests LWMC ex-official

LAHORE: National Accountability Bureau on Monday arrested former General Manager Procurement & Contracts of Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC) Muhammad Tahir Maqbool, accused of illegal and false evaluations, which caused an approximate loss of Rs1 billion to national exchequer and allegedly facilitated M/s Albayrak.It is pertinent to mention that in the investigations of LWMC scam the NAB has already summoned PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif by May 13. The News has learnt that accused Muhammad Tahir Maqbool was associated with LWMC as General Manager, Procurement and Contracts.The accused had also worked as Consultant with Rawalpindi Waste Management. During investigations, it was revealed that the accused incurred colossal loss amounting to Rs1 billion (approx) to the state kitty by preparing bidding documents having instructions to the bidder to offer price without labour cost despite the fact that labour cost was included in the cost estimates.In this way, huge illegal benefit was granted to the contractor to the tune of Rs1 billion approximately on account of double payment to the contractor illegally at the cost of state exchequer. Moreover, due to incorporation of the said discounted bid amounting to $81 million without labour cost was accepted, which otherwise should have taken place as rough cost estimates were formulated with the inclusion of labour cost.It is also alleged that Tahir Maqbool attended the Board of Directors’ meeting held on 26th April, 2014, in which he deliberately concealed the facts from the participants of the meeting that labour cost was included in the cost estimates of the projects, whereas, bid of M/s Albayrak had not included labour cost.Thereby, the accused caused loss amounting to Rs1 billion approximately to the state exchequer by comparing cost estimates amounting to $77 million having labour cost with reduced bid price of Albayrak amounting to $81 million without inclusion of labour cost.Moreover, the accused being GM Procurement & Contracts with ill intentions issued bidding documents to bidder Albayrak without taking requisite approval from Board of Directors.Earlier, NAB investigators had arrested three other senior officials in the said case from which investigations are underway. The accused will be produced today (Tuesday) before accountability court for obtaining his physical remand.

from The News International - National http://bit.ly/2LtoAu9