AGP’s report unearths irregularities of Rs2.77bn in Peshawar’s BRT project

The Auditor General of Pakistan’s (AGP) report into Peshawar’s Bus Rapid Transport project has revealed financial irregularities of worth over Rs2.77 billion. In the report, the AGP said that changes made to the design of the mega project has increased its cost by Rs17 billion (from Rs49 billion to Rs66 billion). The report said that “unauthorized payments” of Rs17.7 million were made to several officials, including Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s additional chief secretary, from the Project Implementation Unit’s fund. It added that Rs1.7 million from the BRT project were spent on pink buses in Mardan and Abbottabad. According to the report, the authorities have yet to recover Rs54.891 million from various contractors for dismantled material. Ikhtiyar Wali, the spokesperson for the PML-N in KP, has demanded that the audit of Peshawar’s BRT project be carried out by a third party. He said that the people who were involved in corruption should be punished as per the law. PTI’s provincial minister Shaukat Yousafzai said, however, there was no corruption in the BRT project. He added the government will take action against if anyone if found involved in any corrupt practices in any inquiry.