Officers in the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) used luxury vehicles supplied by development contractors in addition to their official cars, an audit para has revealed, alleging that the arrangement cost the authority an extra Rs9.520 million in public funds.
The audit para found that officers of LDA Engineering Wing extended undue financial benefit to contractors by inserting clauses for the provision of vehicles and POL (petrol, oil and lubricants) into bidding documents, a move that inflated the overall cost of development projects.
According to sources in the Engineering Wing, the authority told the audit committee that contractors supplied vehicles at the start of the contract along with POL and maintenance services, and that the handing and taking over of the vehicles, along with their log books, had been verified.
The audit committee has directed the authority to submit a detailed reply explaining the justification for demanding vehicles from contractors while simultaneously incurring duplicate expenditure under the transportation charges head for the same activities carried out using official vehicles.
It further ordered that the contractor-provided vehicles be returned immediately and instructed the agency to stop including such clauses in future bidding documents and contract agreements, noting that such provisions raise the bid price offered by contractors and serve the privileges of officers rather than the public interest.
LDA sources said most of the officers involved already had access to official vehicles complete with fuel and maintenance, making the use of contractor-supplied vehicles an unnecessary additional privilege funded through public money.
Sources added that no investigation or inquiry has been launched against any officer over the use of these vehicles or the inflation of bid prices through such provisions.
When contacted, LDA Director General Tahir Farooq said the audit para pertained to a project from 2021 and that the matter had since been resolved, with all vehicles already returned. He added that no such vehicle provision clauses are being included in new project bidding documents.
