The Sub-Committee of National Assembly's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Monday took serious notice of violations of rules in purchase of 5-door jeeps by Motorway Police in 2000-01.
The sub-Committee deferred the related audit para till next meeting asking the department to call all the parties concerned in the next meeting.
Major Tanveer Hussein Syed (Retd) was chairing the meeting while Hafiz Hussain Ahmed and Syed Qurban Ali Shah were the members of the sub-committee. The sub-committee was examining the audit reports related to Motorway Police, Ministry of Communications for the year 2000-01.
The audit department had objected to the purchase of nine 5-door jeeps worth Rs 128.78 million by the then Motorway Police from the dealers rather than the manufacturers as directed by the Ministry of Industries.
The sub-committee advised all the ministries and departments in the public sector to purchase reconditioned vehicles instead of new ones because Pakistan is still a developing country we do not afford to waste our public money on luxuries.
The sub-committee Chairman Tanveer Hussain Syed made the observation that the whole bidding process appears shady, as the one bidder was the dealer, not the manufacturer while the other bidder did not have an assembly plant in the country, so its bid was rejected on technical grounds.
The PAC body observed that the department should have held re-bidding as both the bidders were not qualifying technically.
The PAC sub-committee made the observation that the Rs 1.6 million earnest money of Auto World International Karachi should have been confiscated but the department returned that money despite the fact that it had made a misrepresentation. The PAC body said that in the next meeting it will fix the responsibility for return of earnest money despite violation of tender's term by the bidding party.
It also issued the instructions that the representative of Auto World International should also be summoned in the next meeting to know their viewpoint.
Referring to Rawal Motors participation and subsequent clinching of the contract, Major Tanveer (Retd) said that it should be made clear who allowed a middleman (a car dealer) to take part in the biding while the department was directed to purchase the vehicles from the manufacturers.