The Senate Standing Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by Senator Saifullah Abro, reviewed progress and financial compliance of foreign-funded development work, focusing on the Akram Wah Canal improvement under the SWAT Project and other provincial initiatives.
The Secretary of the Irrigation Department, Government of Sindh, and the Project Director of the Sindh Water and Agriculture Transformation briefed the committee on prequalification procedures for consultants and contractors, the complete tendering process, the bidding data sheet and the latest implementation status. The Project Director said discussions with the World Bank on contractor prequalification are ongoing and the department is awaiting the bank’s response while remaining committed to timely follow up.
While officials noted that the World Bank applies its own transparency mechanisms and that the SWAT Project is at the prequalification stage, the committee pressed for details on the consultant hiring process. When asked for the list of technically qualified and disqualified firms and related evaluation data, the department could not provide satisfactory information and assured members the required details will be submitted before the next meeting.
The committee chair stressed that Pakistan’s heavy loan burdens require full transparency across all contracts and directed that all relevant documents and complete details be uploaded on the official SWAT website to allow public scrutiny. He also raised serious concerns about a consultancy firm that has not reviewed the project design after 20 months, questioning its performance and eligibility for ongoing work on the SWAT Project.
Responding to a query from Senator Syed Waqar Mehdi about the project review mechanism, the Secretary of the Economic Affairs Division outlined the ministry’s monitoring process to ensure foreign funds are used transparently and for their intended purposes. Members warned that loan disbursements must be carefully overseen given the country’s fiscal constraints and past instances where funds were not properly or transparently utilized by implementing departments.
The committee also examined ongoing and proposed projects in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where the Planning and Development Department reported 52 schemes with an estimated cost of Rs 1,072.3 billion, 23 of which are financed by the World Bank and Asian Development Bank across education, agriculture, roads, tourism, health, finance and energy sectors. The chair underlined the need for fully transparent prequalification and tendering in KP, called for strict action on alleged irregularities and directed submission of a one-page brief on all ongoing projects.
Members expressed deep concern over delayed recovery of an embezzled Rs 5 billion linked to the Sindh Solar Energy Project. The committee recalled that the Secretary of the Government of Sindh had previously acknowledged misappropriations and irregularities. The chair directed the Economic Affairs Division to take urgent steps to recover the amount and ensure its deposit into the national exchequer while initiating appropriate action against officials found involved.
The meeting was attended by Senators Syed Waqar Mehdi, Haji Hidayatullah Khan, Rana Mahmood-ul-Hassan, Kamran Murtaza and Rubina Khalid, who joined the chair in urging prompt transparency and compliance in both the SWAT Project and other foreign-funded initiatives.
