FIA unearths massive corruption in PCB

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has unearthed massive financial corruption in Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) after initiating an inquiry against one of its top officials working at the PCB for almost two decades and is described as a person who knows how to do successive chairmen favours.

FIA sources said bungling of millions of rupees had been found in at least four major projects. The FIA, in its initial findings has detected Rs 8.6 million fake bank guarantee furnished by a contractor in the construction of Garhi Khuda Bakhsh Stadium in Larkana, Sindh and Rs 5.6 million illegal payment to another contractor in the Cricket Academy in Multan in Punjab. The FIA is also investigating alleged wrongdoings in the establishment of a bio-mechanical laboratory at Qadhafi Stadium and far end pavilion at Qadhafi Stadium Lahore, sources claimed. Due to delay in the bio-mechanical lab, PCB had sent 32 players to Australia last year for bio-mechanics testing, which cost the board over Rs 10 million, sources said.

The construction of Far East pavilion at Gaddafi Stadium Lahore, which has not been completed for the last eight years, has cost the PCB Rs 300 million so far while completion is not in sight, the sources revealed. The contracting firm, UQ and Sons, has accused the PCB official of not providing electric drawings and not paying it Rs 30 million per agreement.

In the Far End Pavilion project, the FIA is investigating excessive payment made to the contractor in violation of rules, thus causing a loss of millions of rupees to the PCB, the sources said, adding: “The PCB has allegedly made excessive payments against the work completed.” The PCB denies the allegations, saying it had fired Colonel Mohammad Bashir (retd), who was working in the infrastructure department, on recommendations by the inquiry committee for being “in collusion with the contractor”. A PCB spokesman said that the machinery acquired for the laboratory had not become outdated and had been put to use by the current PCB administration in another joint project.