Questions of mismanagement of the KP Placer Gold Auction, and subsequent losses as a direct result of this auctioning, have been raised by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) who issued red flags over the alleged mismanagement and warned that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa may have a loss that runs into the trillions of rupees.
Giving a blow to the reserve prices set on the gold block auctions, NAB alleged that these were under-priced with the motive to benefit few selected bidders. The bureau showed that the leaseholders are sub-hiring mining rights where they charge between Rs. 500,000 and Rs. 700,000 per excavator per week. It is estimated that around 1,500 excavators are in operation making weekly earnings between Rs. 750 million and Rs. 1.05 billion, yet the provincial treasury has only collected a paltry fraction of this income.
Ali Amin Gandapur in response defended his government and said that the auction was done at very high prices than in previous years. He pointed out that the minimum price paid per block was increased to Rs. 1.1 billion compared to the Rs. 650 million previously paid and four blocks reached Rs. 4.6 billion, on ten-year lease terms.
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He further said that no auction had occurred in decades and illegal mining was allowed to run rampant, but his government brought transparency. Gandapur also raised an issue of why a geological survey, initiated in 2023, was suddenly down.
The indicator of insecurity that NAB gives the KP Placer Gold Auction is nonetheless keeping the issues of management of the mineral wealth of the province in the spotlight.
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