PESHAWAR - NAB Khyber Pakhtunkhwa arrested Abdul Wahab Butt, Ishfaq Ahmed, Syed Azam and Mudassar Rai, owners and co-partners of M/S Ittehad Enterprises Peshawar, allegedly involved in provision of 353 voltage stabilisers at Rs102 million to various water supply schemes in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on exorbitant rates in gross violation of procurement rules and caused huge loss to the national exchequer.
A complaint was received to this Bureau, alleging that ex-chief engineer of PHED unilaterally and illegally standardised three firms, including M/S Ittehad Enterprises, M/S Bismillah Engineering and M/S K.B Engineering for purchase of voltage stabilisers without the approval of Provincial Standardization Committee.
During the inquiry it was revealed that the two firms out of three, including K.B Engineering and Bismillah and Co are ghost firms having no physical existence. These two dummy firms were shown to be registered by the owners of M/S Ittehad Enterprises. The bidding process actually involved only single bidder (M/S Ittehad Enterprises), thus lacking transparency, fairness and competition. Owners of M/S Ittehad Enterprises manipulated / monopolised the bidding process through self-established ring / collusion in connivance with officials of PHED and supplied generators at exorbitant rates causing huge loss to National Exchequer. The inquiry is in progress and further arrests are expected. The accused persons were presented before the Accountability Court Peshawar and Accountability Court granted 08 days physical remand of the accused into NAB custody.