The fear of action by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in future has scared the concerned staff in the Project Office GM Hydro Planning of WAPDA and they are avoiding to sign files for awarding the contract of Mohmand Dam, the sources said. However, they have been under extreme pressure over the last one month to finish the award procedure, the sources added. A letter has been dispatched by this staff to the Chief Justice of Pakistan on February 7, presenting complete picture of the bidding.
According to the letter, the illegality on allowing M/s CGGC-Descon JV's substantial omission an material deviation in bid submission is that as per clause 31 of PPRA Rules 2004 (Clarification of bids) which is reproduced as follows, that nobody shall be allowed to modify or change in case there is substantial omission or material deviation.
However, the concerned officers were instructed by their high-ups to turn a blind eye to CGGC-Descon's substantial omission and material deviation, which will definitely affect the power plant operation and bid price eventually.
As per the project design, 800MW power plant will be installed in Mohmand Dam Project, with minimum head loss penstock so that the waterway structure can guarantee the efficient power generation for 40-50 years, and the potential revenue will be considerable. Hence the tender documents specifically asked the bidder to submit the guaranteed head loss for evaluation in the bid, and US 215 million dollars financial loading per meter difference will be carried out according to the bid evaluation criteria.
However, M/s CGGC-Descon JV failed to submit this critical value in bid submission, which shall be rejected technically as per bid evaluation criteria, but we were instructed by Advisor Nasir Hanif to send a clarification letter to M/s CGGC-Descon JV for provision of this substantial omission which will be illegal as per PPRA rules.
More seriously, M/s CGGC-Descon JV failed to provide the required supplier's credit in its financing bid except a non-binding self-explanatory paper of "if, we will", which shall be rejected again due to non-availability of committed letter of intent either from any financing bank or insurance agency as per bid evaluation criteria.
Since ECNEC in April 2018 approved the Mohmand Dam with condition of WAPDA's proposed financing plan, the contractor shall be required to bring supplier's credit for foreign agency on its own balance sheet. However, the high-ups directed the concerned staff to ignore this requirement and allow CGGC-Descon to arrange it after the award of contract. If this major material deviation on contractor's own financing arrangement is again ignored by WAPDA, then overall project stakeholders will be at high risk in the forthcoming implementation due to the uncertainty of non-availability of foreign currency financing.
Meanwhile, the official sources from WAPDA have termed the letter as "anonymous", saying that those raising objections should approach the apex court directly instead of sending anonymous letters to the chief justice. They further pointed out that the chairman WAPDA had addressed all queries in a Senate Standing Committee appearance. They said a lobby was constantly active against the bidding process and trying to politicize the matter since day one.
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