Apropos a news item ''LC opened for purchase of costly helicopters'' carried by Business Recorder on Thursday, the Cabinet Division has clarified that the news item is not based on facts and is designed to malign the Caretaker Prime Minister, Mohammedmian Soomro.
It is clarified that at no stage did the Caretaker Prime Minister direct the Cabinet Division to scrap the tender. The decision to purchase the helicopters was taken by the then Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz in March, 2007 as the existing fleet of six helicopters had outlived their service life.
All the formalities of procurement of helicopters like invitation of tenders through the international press as well as Pakistan Public Procurement Authority (PPRA) Website; pre-bid meeting and evaluation of the tenders by the Inter-Ministerial Committee had been completed by the time the Caretaker Prime Minister took over.
The case was submitted to the Caretaker Prime Minister in early December, 2007 who approved the procurement of the helicopters subject to the conditions that:
(i) procurement be made strictly in accordance with the PPRA Rules;
(ii) full compliance by the bidders of the terms and conditions notified earlier be ensured; and;
(iii) negotiations be held with the bidders to bring down the prices further to ensure that the procurement brings value for money and the process is efficient and economical.
"All these observations were duly taken care of by the Inter Ministerial Purchase Committee before the contract was signed in late December, 2007. The LC was opened for purchase of helicopters subsequently.
"It is also worthwhile to mention that on the direction of the Caretaker Prime Minister the percentage of down payment was reduced from 15% to 9% keeping in view the financial constraint. It may further be mentioned that the delivery of the helicopters will be spread over a period of 22 months with the first delivery in January, 2009. Likewise the payment will also be spread over a period of three financial years early ie 2007-08 to 2009-10," the clarification concluded.