{"id":18295,"date":"2026-04-23T14:38:31","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T14:38:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/2026\/04\/23\/nca-overpayment-of-rs-88-62-million-found-due-to-price-adjustment-irregularities\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T15:23:57","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T15:23:57","slug":"nca-overpayment-of-rs-88-62-million-found-due-to-price-adjustment-irregularities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/2026\/04\/23\/nca-overpayment-of-rs-88-62-million-found-due-to-price-adjustment-irregularities\/","title":{"rendered":"NCA Overpayment of Rs. 88.62 Million Found Due to Price Adjustment Irregularities"},"content":{"rendered":"

NCA Overpayment of Rs. 88.62 Million Found Due to Price Adjustment Irregularities<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nadeem Tanoli<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Islamabad: An audit report has exposed a series of irregularities in the payment of price adjustments for construction work at the National College of Arts (NCA), Lahore, resulting in an overpayment of Rs. 88.62 million. The audit, which reviewed the 2024-25 financials, scrutinized the contractor payments made under the head of the “Construction of Graduate Block,” revealing that management paid inflated rates for work done at escalated prices without proper verification.<\/p>\n

According to the audit findings, the management paid a total of Rs. 391.665 million to the contractor for price adjustments, but a closer review uncovered multiple discrepancies. The first payment, made in April 2022, was for work completed before that date, and subsequent payments followed similarly inflated rates despite the work being delayed beyond the initially agreed timelines. The audit revealed that the contractor, by delaying claims, managed to secure higher payments at escalated rates, contrary to the terms of the contract.<\/p>\n

Key irregularities identified included the failure of the Site Supervisor to maintain a daily record of the work progress, which is required under the measurement book guidelines. Furthermore, the audit highlighted that payments were made based on the price bulletins from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics that did not align with the actual dates of work execution. For instance, the first payment was based on rates applicable in April 2022, even though work began in October 2021 and finished by February 2022.<\/p>\n

The audit raised concerns over payments made for work completed months earlier, with the contractor submitting claims at higher rates despite delayed submissions. In the 2nd Running Bill, the contractor\u2019s claim for work done in October 2022 was paid at escalated rates, although the work was supposed to be completed earlier. Similarly, in the 3rd Running Bill, despite work being completed in January and February 2023, the contractor\u2019s claim for March 2023 rates was paid.<\/p>\n

Despite the management\u2019s assertion that payments were in line with the price adjustment provisions of the Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC), the audit challenged this claim, asserting that the management misinterpreted the contract terms. According to the audit, the contractor should have been paid at the rates prevailing 28 days before the actual work, not 28 days before the submission of claims. This misinterpretation led to a financial loss of Rs. 88.62 million, the audit emphasized.<\/p>\n

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC), led by Chairman Syed Naveed Qamar, has directed the management of NCA to provide supporting documentation and detailed calculations for the price adjustments. The committee has also called for further scrutiny to ensure that the overpayments are recovered from the contractor and returned to the government treasury.<\/p>\n

The Development Advisory Committee (DAC), in its meetings on January 15-16, 2025, and March 3, 2026, instructed NCA\u2019s management to seek clarification from the competent forum regarding the payment mechanism and share the findings with the audit team. As of the latest update, the management has yet to provide the necessary documentation for a thorough review.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NCA Overpayment of Rs. 88.62 Million Found Due to Price Adjustment Irregularities Nadeem Tanoli Islamabad: An audit report has exposed a series of irregularities in the payment of price adjustments for construction work at the National College of Arts (NCA), Lahore, resulting in an overpayment of Rs. 88.62 million. The audit, which reviewed the 2024-25 …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":18294,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[538,2587,2590,2588,2592,2586,2589,2591,135,186],"class_list":["post-18295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health-education","tag-accountability","tag-auditalert","tag-constructionscandal","tag-corruptionwatch","tag-engineeringfail","tag-nca","tag-pac","tag-publicspending","tag-lahore","tag-pakistan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18295"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18297,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18295\/revisions\/18297"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}