AMMAN (JT) - The Ministry of Water and Irrigation on Sunday said the Disi Water Conveyance Project feasibility study that was referred to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) was conducted by the National Resources Investment and Development Corporation (Mawared) in 2005.
The ministry's assistant secretary general and spokesperson, Adnan Zu'bi, told the Jordan News Agency, Petra, that the current implementation of the project is based on other studies that have nothing to do with the study in question conducted by Mawared.
Petra quoted the official as saying that Mawared submitted the study and requested to implement the project in 2005, but withdrew from it soon after that, and since then, has not been involved in the mega-project in any way.
Last Wednesday, ACC President Samih Bino said the commission will refer the feasibility study of the Disi Water Conveyance Project to court soon for suspected corruption after discovering that "too much money" was allocated for the study.
On the investigation into Mawared, Bino said in a recent interview with Petra that after investigating 88,000 documents, the ACC found the company's financial records incomplete, while complete files were missing from 2007 to 2009.
Accordingly, the ACC had to seek assistance from security bodies to retrieve the files and obtain related bank records.
The official pointed to the company's 15 local and international affiliates, which, he said, have hindered investigations since some of these companies' records were not locally available.
Investigations have so far revealed irregularities related to lack of corporate governance and carrying out projects and signing contracts at huge expenses without conducting feasibility studies, he explained.
© Jordan Times 2011
