The Port Qasim Authority (PQA) is all set to overrule the recommendations of its Board by hiring the long-awaited ASD tug, through an executive order of the chairman, instead of negotiated tendering.
The move would not only violate the rules of Pakistan Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) that prohibit any revised documentary business after the issuance of a tender, but would also leave the newly reconstituted PQA Board as an ineffective and powerless body, sources said on Monday.
They said that in its August 6 meeting the PQA Board, after witnessing non-responsive bids to PQA's unclear tendering for chartering a 45 tons bollard pull ASD tug, had decided to revise the bollard pull capacity of the tug to 40-45 tons. They said that the Board had also recommended that the three pre-qualified bidders, SMIT Terminals, Svitzer Middle East and MEW Pvt Ltd, would be asked to re-submit their financial offers for revised specification of the tug.
The Board had also observed that a bidder had come up with a craft having 44 tons bollard pull capacity that was below the required tonnage, thus causing unrest among the other competitors, they added. The Board, sources said, was also told that the rates offered by some of the bidding firms were so high that they were exceeding the rent the Authority was paying for the lease of 60 tons bollard pull tug it had chartered earlier.
They said the Board through a resolution had also advised the newly appointed PQA Chairman Afsar Din Talpur that it had revised the bollard pull capacity for the required ASD tug to a minimum of 40 tons.
But, surprisingly, PQA cancelled a technical committee meeting, which was to come up with its recommendations on the tender on last Saturday, September 6, 2008, sources said. They claimed that a PQA official from operation department had told the committee members that the chairman (of Port Qasim) had issued an order to award the contract to one of the bidding firms, without going through the planned tendering process. Sources said that PQA could not overrule the decisions of its Board, legally.