ISLAMABAD, Feb 20: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Friday constituted a sub-committee to determine how did the ministry of culture spend Rs179 million on the verbal orders of former President General Pervez Musharraf in 2005.

Mazharul Islam, additional secretary ministry of culture, informed the meeting of the committee presided over by Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan that on the verbal orders of the former president, the amount was spent on the construction of National Art Gallery.

He said they did not have anything in writing as far as the orders of the former president were concerned. However, it was the former president’s desire to complete the project on an urgent basis.

Nadeem Afzal Chann would be heading the sub-committee that would report back to the PAC after one month.

“If late Benazir Bhutto could be called, as the opposition leader, before the PAC for her in-person explanation, then why not General Pervez Musharraf,” remarked the chairman of the PAC. Whosoever is responsible for this irregularity has to appear before the committee, he added.

Audit officials have pointed out that in July 2005 the management of Pakistan National Council of the Arts awarded the contract worth Rs179 million of civil and plumbing works at the National Art Gallery to MS Builders in violation of the Public Procurement Rules 2004.

The contract was awarded without calling open tenders in the press as required under the Rule-12 of the PPR. Instead, the ministry short listed pre-selected firms with bidding documents due to which many eligible companies were deprived of a chance to participate in the bidding process.

In response to this objection of the audit, the ministry officials in their written reply said during a presentation that early completion of the National Art Gallery was desired by the president; hence to accelerate the completion of the project it was decided that instead of going through the lengthy procedures of open tenders already selected firms for the mega projects should be called and the contract was subsequently awarded to the lowest bidder.

On this, the chairman PAC constituted the sub-committee to ascertain whether the former president had directed the construction of the National Art Gallery or some other elements were involved in this irregular use of the money in violation of the PPR 2004.

The committee wants to fix responsibility as no one has the discretionary powers to spend even a single penny of the public money what to talk about Rs179 million, said the chairman PAC.