The Rs 220 million consultancy contract which was due to be signed by North Sindh Urban Services Corporation Limited (NSUSC), Sukkur, for its project titled 'Sindh Cities Improvement Project (11 IPP-04)' after its board meeting on April 30 may be put on hold.
The reason: Complaint lodged by Euroconsult Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd against the award of contract to Mott-McDonald on the basis of their bid submitted in 2009, being the second ranking firm. Transparency International Pakistan (TIP), on receiving the complaint, has advised NSUSC that in case the allegation is true, action would be taken against the defaulting consultants and the assignment would be re-tendered, and not awarded on negotiation basis.
Syed Adil Gilani in his letter sent to the North Sindh Urban Services Corporation Limited (NSUSC) on April 28 had pointed out that the Asian Development Bank (ADB) loan "is to be repaid by the tax payers, and any non-competitive award of contract may result in violation of the laws of Pakistan as well as rules of ADB."
Sajjad Haydar, Technical Adviser, ECPAK, in his letter to TIP, sent on April 26 explained that SCIP-04 contract was awarded to Austrain firm Posh and Partners (P & P) after a cumbersome procedure of almost a year which included advertisement, pre-qualification and award.
Subsequently, the contract of P & P was strangely terminated after a period of execution of over one-a-half years in spite of the receipt of deliverables on agreed dates by NSUSC in writing.
Now, instead of advertising the project, NSUSC has finalised negotiations with the second rate consultant, Mott-McDonald, at a much higher rate against the normal procedure of transparency and ethics which may cause huge loss to the Sindh government and a complete wastage of resources without any guarantee of satisfactory implementation on time.
He solicited urgent attention for intervention and taking the matter of re-advertisement with North Sindh Urban Services Corporation Limited (NSUSC) and its board including the Additional Chief Secretary, Development through Government of Sindh to comply with the codal formalities of transparency and to avoid further non-transparent precedence of this sort.
Comments
Comments are closed.