Karachi: : The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) under its prevention regime has found hiring of consultants for 3G and 4G Spectrum auction not in line with Pakistan Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) Rules.
The bureau has advised Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to ensure adherence of PPRA Rules and asked for confirmation till December 26, 2012.
In a letter to Ministry of Information Technology (MoIT) Secretary, NAB has asked for a detailed presentation to the NAB chairman on January 1, 2013 on the issues of tax evasion, SMS General Sales Tax (GST) Evasion, Universal Services Fund (USF), E-governance and Auction of Broadband Frequency. NAB has identified tax evasion by the cellular companies because of absence of forensic auditing and facility of interlinking exchanges.
The bureau has also asked MoIT to clarify violation of the rules by the cellular companies for charging 19.5 percent SMS GST.
NAB under its prevention efforts is endeavouring to bring transparency and fair play in tendering process of the projects, auction and procurements in close coordination with the regulators. Exercise is aimed at strengthening the regulatory mechanism in the country at large.
It’s worth mentioning here that the Advisory Committee constituted for transparent auction of 3G  spectrum had approved the appointment of foreign consultants for making the process transparent. MoIT and PTA have hired the services of three consultants on over $500,000 as transaction fee for each consultant and have instructed to finalise transaction design, prepare software and other transaction related work within minimum possible timeframe. The government is already aiming at completing this transaction by end of its tenure to fetch around $700 million to $800 million as 3G  spectrum auction proceeds.
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