Investigation into pipes that failed to meet specifications
LIBYA – The Public Prosecution has ordered the detention of the chairman of the board of the General Company for Water and Wastewater and nine other company officials over investigations into contracts to supply pipes for carrying water to municipalities at a total cost of 16,639,000 dinars.
The Attorney General’s Office said the investigating authority had brought a criminal case against the company’s chairman, the official in charge of contract management and members of the committee that received the supplies, after examining the results of an Audit Bureau inspection of four contracts the company had concluded with a contractor that undertook to supply the pipes.
Irregularities in award procedures and specifications
The prosecution said it had confronted the defendants with the inspection findings, which revealed breaches of the rules for awarding the supply work and showed that company officials had deliberately accepted the contracted materials even though they did not conform to the specifications set out in the contracts.
The findings showed that pipes made of materials prone to rust had been accepted, contrary to specifications requiring them to be made of rust-resistant stainless steel, and that the approved country-of-origin specifications had also been breached.
Financial discrepancies in one supply contract
The investigations revealed that payment of 4,459,000 dinars had been authorised for one of the supply contracts, while the value of the non-compliant materials supplied under that contract did not exceed 1,700,000 dinars, according to the Public Prosecution.
