LAHORE: The scope of the probe into alleged corruption has been widened after Rs135m bid security issued to a lead partner of a joint venture to get contract of a USD39m gas compression project was encashed by the Oil & Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) due to irregularities, mismanagement and misuse of power allegedly on the part of the removedmanaging director (MD) of the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL).

According to official sources, the issues involving a major loss of Rs135m allegedly on the part of the suspended MD Ali J. Hamdani emerged during various recent internal checks, forcing the authorities to broaden the scope of the ongoing inquiries separately by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and the board of directors (BoD) of the company.

On the other hand, Mr Hamdani has allegedly refused to sit in the office allotted to him at 2nd floor of the SNGPL head office in Lahore as he reportedly continues insisting to sit in the MD office that has already been sealed by the management, Dawn has learnt.Sources said the OGDCL floated tenders for hiring of the EPCC contractor for designing, engineering, procurement (supply), construction, installation/erection, pre-commissioning, commissioning and start up (including performance testing and reliability guarantee test) of the Uch Front End Compression Project through print media on Oct 10, 2021 and Nov 6, 2021 and later extended the date of submission of the bidding documents till Feb 16, last year.

After technical evaluation of the bids received from various companies, one submitted by a JV led by a leading private firm, owned by a former federal minister, with secondary partnership of the SNGPL was found to be `technically responsive for the project worth USD39m. TheSNGPL, being 50pc partner in the JV led by the private firm, also issued Rs135m to the firm as a part of its share (50pc) for submission of the bid security, amounting to R s270m in total by the JV to the project owner, OGDCL.

`After finding the bid as responsive technically, the project owner (OGDCL) sought performance guarantee (10pc of the total cost of the project) from the JV. At this, he (the MD) had no option but to consult and get it approved by the BoD under the law. But when he tabled it, the BoD refused to own the decision of the MD, as according to it, he (the MD) neither discussed the project nor had got the company participation as secondary partner of a JV approved before initiation of the bidding process,` a senior official,who requested anonymity, explained while talking to Dawn.

`Finally, the board rejected the case as being unlawful. The entire procurement process was also not transparent,` the official said, adding that the bid security of Rs135m was later encashed by the OGDCL, causing such a huge financial loss to the company. He said the officers at the SNGPL were also threatened, harassed and coerced allegedlyinto going along with his orders of issuing the bid bond and entering into contract worth $39m.

It merits mention that the outgoing MD has been facing various other allegations, including adoption of a 270km route for Bannu West and Walid 1 gas pipeline project instead of 55km despite being repeatedly agitated by the Oil andGas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) at a projected cost of Rs22bn.

During his tenure of two years, he (being a resident of Karachi) was reported to have travelled to Karachi from Lahore 75 times for personal reasons by making these as official trips through arranging meetings in Karachi instead of Lahore.

`In a bid to justify and show his trips as official, he used to take various officers to Karachi along with him that resulted in loss of millions of rupees to the public money.

`The MD has entitlement of keeping two vehicles at his or her disposal but he used to keep seven vehicles. Besides, he wanted the company to buy more luxury vehicles in violation of the austerity policy,` said another official source.

`Internal audit reports also raised observations on misuse of power by him,` he said and added that Mr Hamdani was reported to be `unlawfully` absent from his official duties for the last two months after the SNGPL BoD barred him from exercising his powers as the MD in February this year while assigning the charge of acting MD to Amer Tufail. The company`s BoD didn`t dismiss him as it only revoked his power of attorney until completion of the inquiries against him. `But the defunct MD is not ready to come to office without the protocol given to a functional MD only. Some time back videos of his extraordinary protocol went viral on social media inviting harsh criticism against the company management,` the official said.

He said the SNGPL`s management is of the view that in accordance with the board`s directives, Mr Hamdani could not use his powers but he was obligated to attend the office on a regular basis like all other employees. Any employee of the company is not entitled to salary if he/she is not attending office regularly, even an officer under suspensionhas to attend office on working days under the rules. The of ficial said the HR Dept issued notices of unauthorised absence from service to him, but he didn`t bother.

When contacted, Mr Hamdani rejected the allegations and termed the SNGPL`s board immature.

`The encashment of the bid security by the project owner is just due to negligence of the sitting management and not me. Why didn`t the company challenge it? And why was this issue not raised when I was the MD?` he questioned.

He also rejected the allegation about adoption of a long route for a gas pipeline project.

`For taking such routes, many organisations, people used to give their input and it was not the decision of the MD alone,` he clarified, claiming that Ogra had been convinced on the pipeline route.

Mr Hamdani said he made all the trips to Karachi genuinely since the Karachi was the city from where the pipelines were coming to Punjab.

`There are several issues that are required to be done while sitting in Karachi and not Lahore,` he argued, adding that why everything bad against him was happening after he was removed.