Mass Transit Scam?

I was shocked after reading the following piece of news which highlights a corruption scam in the study report of the Lahore Mass Transit Study Plan. It provides so many details that every bit of it sounds convincing.

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By Masood Hasan
11/18/2007

I think most people will agree that scams for Pakistanis are like snow for Eskimos. Hardly shocking any more, the willing suspension of disbelief having gone the full round, anything and everything is possible, is acceptable and is believable. In fact such is the nationwide cynicism that the more bizarre the scam, the more believable it becomes. Stories about LPG quotas for all the top stakeholders who are holding on to the stakes for dear life are rampant. Everyone who is anyone seems to have tons of LPG 'allocated' to them. It is money for jam because no hard work is required, no daily grind here. Quotas in, LPG out, money in. Every day, hundreds of thousands of rupees are rolling into private coffers, no one daring to question the transparency of the deals that net millions to those who already have billions.

So this startling email -- even by Pakistan's jaded standards, popped up on my screen the other day. The subject? A Rs600 million corruption scam in the Study Report of the Lahore Mass Transit Train Project. The period? Just a few months between April and September this year. The sender of the email swears on all that is holy that every word, every amount of money siphoned off in this scam, is true and offers his email address for any verification. So those thinking that this is another irresponsible rumour of which variety this country has plenty might have to re-think. Is it a score-settling game? I doubt it.

The Punjab government has launched a Rs200 billion project for the transportation of millions of intercity commuters in Lahore. For the preparation of the study report, a Hong Kong-based consultancy firm was hired. In the preparation of this report, Rs600 million has changed hands in the form of bribes and kickbacks. Why the firm needs to buy at this stage the acquiescence of the lower staff, acting on their own or representing other powerful masters, remains a mystery. This report which has a vital bearing on the safety standards of the proposed system seems to be of critical importance to the foreign firm which instead of doing its work is apparently spending all its time and resources, greasing many outstretched palms.

The alleged main players are some officers and a clerk of the Punjab Transport Department and the AG's office, but two main characters who emerge are a section officer and a clerk in BPS-10. Not only are both named, but their NIC numbers are also provided. The clerk fronts for the section officer who fronts for the others. Among other things the talented clerk has in a matter of six months procured seven vehicles in his brother, wife and friend's names. The vehicles complete with registration numbers and names registered to, include two Honda Civics, a Toyota Corolla GLI, a Santro, a Cuore, a Toyota Camry (I want that sexy Camry) and an unregistered Prado. The gentleman providing these gory details admits that there are still some details missing. The value of these cars is known to all.

He goes on to list the money deposited in the NIB Bank in Lahore complete with account numbers. Here the clerk's lady wife has a number of hefty deposits to her good name. These deposits made between May and September 2007 range from Rs2.15 crores, Rs2 crores again two weeks later, another two crores a day later, Rs20 lacs in July, another Rs2.5 crores in September, followed by Rs60 lacs a week later and another similar sum another week later. It all adds up to many crores, many lacs and too many thousands which I can't write in figures my French being what it is.

The head clerk who must be a very busy man has another set of accounts at Habib Bank (mera be to hai) where he and his lady wife plonked Rs75 lacs in September. This comes with details of the account number, beneficiary etc. A similar sum of money is placed by the enterprising clerk's lucky brother on the same dates. That is Rs 75 lacs again in case you are losing the thread of the narrative. There are reportedly more accounts or more sums of money deposited here of which details are not known. Why we cannot make this head clerk Pakistan's finance minister I'll never know, but such talent should hardly go unnoticed -- can't really say unrewarded.

Having done with the cars and the bank accounts, next on the menu is the dessert. This comes in the shape of a rich cheesecake and is just as appetising as cheesecakes are reputed to be. The mysterious boss appears at last but the lead roles are still shared by the head clerk and his lady wife against which fair lady, Lady Macbeth has begun to look more and more like Mother Teresa. However, dessert awaits. In Iqbal Town, Lahore, the boss has a plot -- a modest affair worth about Rs1.5 crores only. The adjoining plot -- anyone remember 'birds of a feather flock together?' -- is with Lady Macbeth valued the same. The party then moves to Gulshan-e-Ravi where three plots are picked up valued at about Rs3.25 crores in all. A house in Old Anarkali for Rs70 lacs and another modest dwelling on Food Street, valued at Rs35 lacs are also with the dear lady. In what is obviously a 'loot sale', Lady Macbeth then picks up two villas in Gulshan-e-Ravi for Rs2.25 crores, a flat on Maclagan Road for Rs15 lacs and a house in Shalimar Colony in his/her brother brother-in-law's name for Rs20 lacs, a shop in Old Anarkali for Rs15 lacs and another for Rs70 lacs. Another shop in Mozang for Rs15 lacs, two small hotels on Food Street for Rs1.2 crores and Rs20 lacs and a jewellery shop in Anarkali for Rs70 lacs completes the bonanza. Total value of these properties? Rs14 crores, 85 lacs. How much does it all add up to? God knows how much, since I have lost count.

As for after dinner chocolates, the enterprising group has picked up a wholesale gold business in Old Anarkali (I guess that's where all the action is) for a paltry Rs1.5 crores plus another two business units for Rs15 lacs each, all these goodies registered in the names of two brothers and a son. Total value of this initiative? Rs1.5 crores, 30 lacs. So, those of you still struggling with your lacs and crores, the entire package is about Rs18 crores give or take a crore this way or that. I now understand what Shaukat Aziz kept calling the 'trickle down' effect and dud that I was, never quite understood that brilliant man. But to our sleuth some marks for detailed probing are perhaps due because he had attached two approved bills pertaining to Sep-Oct complete with invoice numbers, details of the invoices and amounts paid into the company's accounts in Citibank.

The question is, whether this is true or not? If false, why go into so many details? Is it someone done out of this deal, now spilling the beans or is it someone who is sincere and horrified at this blatant corruption? Who knows? Why is this foreign company having to shell out so much money at a study phase level? How can they afford so much payoffs? Are they incompetent? Is this project another Jinnah Flyover that collapsed within a month of its opening? No wonder they called it a flyover! And of course our dear 'jawans' who built this engineering marvel have not been singled out and punished at all. Not that anyone was expecting it. We are all used to scams and every deal in Pakistan is shady. The purchase of PIA's 777 aircraft routed through a company, Taxila Inc, registered (but of course) in Cayman Islands with a grand paid-up capital of $ 250 just 11 days before the banks pushed the loans through has the same smell as fish left out in the sun, but who is probing it? The lurid details of Lahore's Mass Transit payoffs need to be investigated. But then, who is going to do it?