The Bank of Punjab (BoP) has decried Transparency International Pakistan's allegation regarding procurement of core banking system on turnkey basis. Group Head, Operations, BoP, Kamran Khalil in a fax message to Business Recorder said that TI-Pakistan's letter "levelling baseless allegations, apparently without having done its due diligence" amounted to figment of imagination.
AS contract had been signed by BoP with Kalsoft (Pvt) Ltd, in 2006 for development of core banking modules, rather than purchase of core banking solution, within a period of three years, which they failed to do, to bank's satisfaction. In this respect a hindsight review by AF Ferguson revealed major and critical gaps and, therefore, it was discarded.
It is evident, he said that the bank strictly adhered to the PPRA rules for procurement and, at no stage, any violation was done. He has also attached an email message from a vendor confirming that their headquarter had downloaded the documents on January 10, while their regional office downloaded the tender documents on January 11, substantiating bank's claim that these were available at bank's website on January 10. Needless to say, PPRA rule 23 allows procuring agencies to make available bidding documents immediately after the publication of the invitation to bid.
In the original invitation to bid, the date for opening of the bids was February 14, 2013 - after more than 30 days. All documents were uploaded on websites of BoP and PPRA between January 10 and 11. It is only prudent that "we upload the bidding documents after ensuring that the invitation to bid has been published." BoP in response to TI-Pakistan letter had succinctly refuted their allegations and had urged them to verify their suchlike reports before levelling serious allegations.
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