ISLAMABAD In deviation of the prescribed procurement rules the authorities in Oil & Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) have paid Rs 2.05 million to a fake and forged vendor in the procurement case of social welfare material worth Rs 2.8 million, TheNation has learnt. According to the documents available with TheNation, OGDCL directed by the government of Pakistan to distribute social welfare material including all types of stationery caps, 'dupattas and school bags among rural areas of the four provinces. In this respect, a cash purchase committee was constituted duly approved by OGDCL Managing Director (MD) on August 27, 2005. Quotations were obtained from M/s Adil Traders & Book Centre, Lahore, M/s Nazir & Brother Stationers, Islamabad, M/s Mushtaq & Sons, Taxila, M/s Sohail Stationers Rawalpindi, VB Enterprises Rawalpindi and M/Dynamic Steel Works Lahore. According to the document, the then Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO) had prepared a comparative statement same day (self-endorsed) and put up with a note reference (No. PPK6110-0000-050908) signed by the committee members requesting the MD to approve the lowest bidder M/s Nazir & Brothers for the provision of 100,000 items of copies, pencils, rubbers, rulers and sharpeners. Interesting to note here that cost of the lowest bidder was not mentioned on the note. The MD accorded approval on September 8, 2005. The CPRO placed the work order No. PRD04-14/3 dated September 9, 2005 to M/s Nazir & Brothers. The collective amount of order was not mentioned on the order but it sums up to Rs 2,480,000 based on the quotation submitted by M/s Nazir & Brothers dated September 3, 2005 inclusive of all taxes. M/s Nazir & Brothers submitted their GST invoice No. 201 dated January 15, 2006 for an amount of Rs 2,852,000 including sales tax amount of Rs 372,000. the CPRO initiated a note No. PRD05-01/463 dated January 20, 2006 requesting payment to M/s Nazir & Brothers against the aforementioned invoice. The note was endorsed by the CPTO and marked the same to Khalid Mahmud, Secretary SWC, for budget allocation. M/s Nazir & Brothers requested for the payment in the name of Nazir Ahmed who was supplied the items and submitted the bill No 201 January 15, 2006, but there was no formal request available on record. Scrutiny of address and phone number of M/s Nazir & Brothers has revealed that the address was of an empty plot in F-11 Markaz, Islamabad, and the phone number belongs to the owner of M/s MIDAS advertising agency, Islamabad. Furthermore, it revealed that Nazir Ahmed was the driver of the owners of M/s MIDAS. (Documents available with TheNation). Irregularity in the purchase of SW material was reported to the then MD. Consequent to the above incident, the MD constituted a three-member fact-finding committee to investigate the same vide letter No. CE-873/2006 dated February 27, 2006 consisting of Syed Ziaudin Ahmed, Manager Foreign Procurement, as chairman, Abdul Hussain, Acting Manger Internal Audit, as member and Arshad Mahmud, Deputy Chief Accountant, as member. The committee on April 26, 2006 filed its finding that the cash purchase committee was not constituted in line with the local procurement procedure Para No 4.1.1 of local procurement procedure because it did not include a member from the Procurement Department. The delivery challans for the supply of stationery items are not available while one fax message No. JMN1/1805 Islamabad dated February 27, 2006 from Rig #N2 reported short delivery of the items. The fact-finding committee concluded that it is evident that the deal is completely unfair. In addition, many procedural violations have been made including deviation from procurement procedures that have caused a heavy loss to the national exchequer. The Finance Department repeatedly checked the addresses; contact numbers, NTN, and other formalities for payment but nothing, provided by M/s Nazir & Brother, got verified but found the vendor fraudulent. Despite the fact-finding report, and series of objections by OGDCLs Finance Department, in response of a legal notice by the aforesaid mafia OGDCL official declined and paid Rs 2,055,448 on April 25,2008. The well-informed sourced informed this scribe that an influential CPRO did manage to release the payments from the OGDCL.