The Auditor General of Pakistan has revealed that National Database Registration Authority (NADRA) has caused a loss of $1.07 million to the national kitty through misprocurement of smart card machine. The AGP in its audit report for Audit 2014-15 said the management has not complied with Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) with respect to response time and did not include the cost of smart card testing purpose in the purchase order.
"As per Public Procurement Rules, 2004, under no circumstances, the response time shall be less than fifteen (15) days for national competitive bidding and thirty (30) days for international competitive bidding from the date of publication of advertisement or notice," it pointed out.
The audit observed that tenders were advertised in March 2012 for the purchase of smart card personalization machine with response time of 15 days. It was an international tender, therefore, the required response time was 30 days. Consequently, only one bid of M/s Muhlbauer was received at $2.10 million, which was higher than the previous purchase price of $1.03 million offered by M/s Data Card.
This resulted in loss of $1.07 million due to non-submission of bids by other parties on account of short response time. In addition to it, the management provided free-of-cost smart cards valuing $0.058 million to M/s Muhlbauer for testing purposes. The audit said the management should have granted the response time of thirty (30) days in compliance of PPRA Rules and should have included the cost of smart card for testing purposes in the purchase order. The matter was reported to the management on April 8, 2014. The Departmental Account Committee (DAC) directed the management that specifications of both the machines and tender documents, along with evidence in support of global practice (that in such cases the testing cost was borne by the buyer of machine) may be provided to audit for verification. The audit recommended production of relevant record for verification.
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