ISLAMABAD: Members of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Petroleum, probing the Rs 3.5 million tonnes LNG scam, were taken aback on Thursday when new official documentary evidence, so far concealed from them, was given to them by a journalist.

The documentary evidence relating to the billion-dollar scam was placed before the committee members by Editor Reporting of The News, Rauf Klasra, who was summoned by the committee to substantiate his story published in The News on March 29 under the headline: “A billion dollar scam lands in federal cabinet”.

The NA members were told that the petroleum ministry bosses had never recommended to the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) to give the multi-billion dollar contract to French firm (GDF-SUEZ), whom surprisingly they all were religiously defending now.

It was disclosed that the petroleum ministry had actually recommended the award of the contract to Shell-Qatar, whose bid was higher than the French bid by $1.5 billion. But Shaukat Tarin had thrown this recommendation of the ministry in a dustbin after he learnt that he was being asked to award the contract to a party (Shell), whose bid was higher by $1.5 billion compared to the lowest bidder.

At the end of the hour-long presentation followed by a question-answer session, Chairman MNA Sheikh Waqas Akram, praised the journalist for his comprehensive presentation. Later, MD Fauji Foundation Lt Gen Rab Nawaz was said to have reiterated his old stance that his firm’s bid was the lowest if compared with the GDF-Suez, which was awarded the deal.

The committee met with Chairman Sheikh Waqas in the chair and was attended by MNAs Barjees Tahir, Nawab Yousuf Talpur, Wasan, Khurum Wattoo and others. Petroleum Minister Naveed Qamar, Secretary Kamran Lashari, Special Secretary G A Sabri and MD FF General Rab Nawaz attended the meeting.

Klasra told the committee that his story was based on the minutes of the ECC presided over by then Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin. The minutes had revealed that Tarin had got a telephone call from MD Fauji Foundation that the lowest bid given jointly by FF/Vitol had been rejected and the highest bidder GDF-Suez was given the lucrative contract. Tarin had informed MD FF that he was not aware of any such bidding because the petroleum ministry never shared such information in its official summary tabled before the ECC on Feb 9.

Consequently, Tarin had alarm bells ringing and had ordered a serious probe into the whole issue as to why the bid offered by FF/Vitol was not mentioned in the summary. But the petroleum ministry never replied to the queries of Tarin till he departed from his office at the end of February, much to the satisfaction of the petroleum ministry officials who thought that the issue had been buried but the publication of the scandal by The News shook them.

Petroleum ministry officials had even written a letter to Tarin, informing him that Minister Naveed Qamar had desired that they should not respond to him as he would “personally deal” with this issue. According to Klasra, he had contacted Shaukat Tarin to get his version about these startling developments and the ex-FM had confirmed on record that he was kept in the dark about the joint bid of FF/Vitol, which was claimed to be the lowest.

Tarin confirmed that he got no reply from the Ministry of Petroleum till he left the office. He also claimed that according to his calculation and information, there was a difference of one billion dollars in the bid price of the French company and FF/Vitol, so the country had suffered a loss of a billion dollar.

A committee member pointed out that Tarin did not say this during his presentation before the committee. Klasra replied that his story was published on March 29 and today 10 days had passed but Tarin had not denied his statement.

Klasra also produced a summary of Petroleum Ministry sent to the ECC on Feb 9 to get 3.5 million tonnes LNG contract awarded to Shell-Qatar. He established that he was wondering now how the petroleum ministry bosses were religiously defending the award of the contract to French firm GD-Suez, when in the official summary to the ECC, they had recommended that the contract be given to Shell-Qatar.

It was argued that it was strange to see in the official papers placed before the ECC that Petroleum Ministry officials had even rejected the report and recommendation of its own consultant hired at a lucrative cost.

The consultant had opposed the award of the contract to Shell and had instead recommended GDF-Suez, being the lowest bidder compared to Shell. The petroleum ministry dumped his report and instead recommended Shell for the award of contract. If the ministry was not convinced that GDF-Suez was competent to get the deal despite offering a lower price than Shell, it should have gone to the cabinet to get PM Gilani’s approval. But they agreed with the decision of Shaukat Tarin but now they were offering all sorts of excuses to justify that GDF-Suez was the best deal.

Klasra told the committee that the ministry had erred in giving contract to the French company, as they were only acting as “middle man” who did not produce any evidence of sales-purchase agreement with any big LNG producing country.

On the other hand, Shell was the only bidder which produced its agreement with Qatar, the world’s largest LNG producer. So technically, Shell’s bid should have been more suitable, as it could ensure supply of LNG for 20 years. But, as it was $1.5 billion higher, Tarin rejected it. It needs to be probed why the ministry ignored the lowest bid of GDF-Suez and recommended the highest bidder Shell.

The committee was told that Vitol had hired FF keeping its powerful clout in Pakistani politics to fetch this deal from the Ministry of Petroleum, stipulating that even the GHQ may support because Fauji Foundation was an Army related institution. It needs to be investigated that if MD FF General Rab Nawab was doing a U-turn and stating that his bid was expensive than GDF-Suez, then he must be asked why in the first place did he raise so much hue and cry, as he contacted Shaukat Tarin and even wrote to the Prime Minister Secretariat to get it investigated.

General Rab Nawaz also went to the ISI to get its help to probe this scam by arguing his bid was the lowest but was ignored. The ECC papers confirmed General Rab Nawaz from day one had taken the firm stance that his bid was the lowest one.

But as Supreme Court and the NA committee were probing the affair, the Fauji Foundation was changing its stance to get a clean chit.

However, after departure of Klasra from the meeting, MD FF General Rab Nawaz once again reiterated that FF/Vitol bid on the day of bidding was the lowest, which is said to have again put the ministry officials in trouble.
Source: The News
Date:4/9/2010