RAWALPINDI: The Punjab government has not only stopped work but launched an inquiry into the the award of contract for Developing Resilient Environment andAdvancing Municipal Services (Dreams) project Phase-I worth Rs22 billion in Rawalpindi to bring water from Chahan Dam.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) provided $114 million loan to Punjab government to launch four mega projectsin the garrison city to provide clean water to the residents and work started on it in October 2024.

After the start of the project in four months, the reports of non-transparent award of the contract created ripples in the province and it forced thePunjab government to start inquiry first and then continue work on the project.

Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz formed a four-member committee for inquiry and ordered a report be sent to her within seven days. Chief Minister Inspection Team (CMIT) Chairman Salman Ejaz will be the convener while member general of CMIT Ahsan Waheed and member engineering of CMIT Ghulam Abbas Virk are the committee members.

The convener has been given authority to appoint any other member for technical assistance, if required.

A senior official of the Housing Urban Development Department told Dawn that there were reports about non-transparent conduct of bidding process and award of works under the Dreams project of the LocalGovernment and Community Development Department for Lot 2 and 3 following which the chief minister constituted the committee.

He said the committee would examine all relevant records, hear relevant officials and ascertain facts threadbare to determine the veracity of allegations of non-transparency at any stage during the process for award of works for Lot 2 and Lot 3.

`It will analyse the proceduralcorrectness of the bidding process and any other matter associate d thereto. It will weigh the stances held by different officers/officials engaged in the execution of the subject project and determine the appropriateness of their conduct, he said.

The official said the committee would dig out the matter in depth to evaluate if the subject pro-ject execution suffers from any kind of corrupt practices and also fix responsibilities on the concerned officials, undertake any other measure which is required to derive definite conclusions vis-a-vis the issues highlighted regarding the subject project, he said.

It may be mentioned here that a joint venture of Turkish company 5H Insaat and Pakistani firm Q asim Khan and Company had gotten the contract.

According to officials, the joint venture was awarded the contract worth Rs10 billion for Lot 2 and Rs12 billion for Lot 3. However, he said Wasa Rawalpindi officials already recommended to re-start the bidding process as the Punjab Intermediate Cities Improvement Investment Programme wanted to give the contract to a single firm without any procedure.