Prime Minister's secretariat: PPRA refuses to allow procurement of dietary items

Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) has reportedly refused to allow procurement of dietary items to Prime Minister's Secretariat in violation of PPRA rules, official sources told Business Recorder. PM secretariat is responsible for managing personal affairs (like security, health, movement, protocol, administration etc) of the Prime Minister, his family and distinguished guests.
For arranging/preparation of meals, an establishment namely Household is working under the supervision of comptroller, a BS-19 officer. Although PPRA rules imposed restriction on purchases exceeding Rs 100,000/- without calling open tenders however, since the inception, Prime Minister's Secretariat is making purchases in this regard from the open market ie without open tender, due to obvious reasons such as:
(i) from security point of view the purchases are made from the open market and vendors are changed regularly to avoid any untoward incident;(ii) it is not possible to maintain desired quality of food items through general suppliers;(iii) hygienically, the best possible items are purchased from the open market;(iv) the day to day requirements of the August House with regard to dietary items are multifarious and it is not possible to store hundreds of items to fulfil the daily requirements;(v) to entertain foreign guests, different types of foods are to be prepared which require diverse items that a normal contractor will be unable to provide; and (vi) quite often, large functions / events are organised / held on a very short notice; therefore, the required items are purchased from local market.
Recently, during the course of audit, it was observed that purchases being made are not in accordance with the PPRA Rules. They stressed that irregularity may be regularised by the competent authority and in future exemption/ relaxation for open tendering may be obtained.
PPRA argues that in the light of the justification given by the Prime Minister's Secretariat it does not seem to be feasible to get the supplies from any contractor/ supplier. Prime Minister's Secretariat has requested necessary exemption from open tender regarding purchases for household items.
In August last year, Director Security to the Prime Minister, Lieutenant Colonel Malik Naveed Ahmad had written a letter to Director General Audit, reiterating that due to unique status of the Prime Minister's House, official/state functions are arranged at a short notice. To meet the requirement of VVIP/ foreign dignitaries by keeping high standard, dietary items as well as toilet requisites are purchased from the open market in the public interest and also for security reasons.
He further argued that it is not practically possible for the Prime Minister's House to purchase these items from suppliers even if pre-qualified as provided in PPRA rules 2004. Director Security also argued that this system is being followed in the Presidency as well as provincial headquarters. The sources said this issue is being submitted to the PPRA Board for seeking exemption from the PPRA rules.