ISLAMABAD: A Senate committee on Monday invalidated the bids for the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Tranche-III project and called on the National Highway Authority (NHA) to cancel the bids and inform the project financier of its findings regarding the use of “forged” documents to secure all four contracts associated with the Rs170 billion project.

The Senate Standing Committee on Economic Affairs Division also called for the blacklisting of a joint venture (JV) of three firms — M/s Ningxia Communications Construction Co., Ltd NXCC, M/s Dynamic Constructors, and M/s Rustam Associates.

The committee called on the NHA to write to the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the project financier, within two days regarding the firms’ non-compliance and the fraudulent nature of the bids.

It further recommended that the Economic Affairs Division officially notify the ADB that the bids were “technically invalid and were manipulated due to the malafide intentions of NHA officials and the contractors.”

Committee shocked by NHA revelation that companies have refused to provide relevant documents, terms bid papers ‘forged’

The committee declared the bids null and void, concluding that documents submitted by the auditors were “fraudulent and unverified” and that due process was not followed.

The committee noted that the lead partner, NXCC, had previously been disqualified from two other ADB-funded projects, including CAREC Trance-II, but was still deemed qualified for Tranche-III.

It also criticised the NHA for awarding the contracts to a company with a history of disqualification and for what it called persistent non-cooperation with the parliamentary investigation.

According to an official statement, issued by the Senate Secretariat, NHA officials told the committee that letters had been sent to all firms, but they had refused to provide the required documents.The committee was shocked to learn that the firms had sent their responses to their auditors instead of directly to the NHA.

“The NHA has failed to submit the required documents to date, despite a commitment made by the CEO, NHA, in the last meeting to provide them within two days,” he added.

After extensive deliberations, the committee concluded that NHA failed to provide the required documents. The auditor of the local firms admitted that they did not have the documents, and both contractors also refused to provide them.

Published in Dawn, September 2nd, 2025