IT experts have urged the federal and provincial governments to strictly implement all relevant clauses of Public Procurement Rules, to ensure transparency in awarding IT projects' contracts to local and international companies. While addressing a news conference at press club on Thursday, Syed Tahir Rizvi, Chief Executive Officer of One Apple, a private IT company said the Pakistan Public Procurement Rules, relevant clauses of 10 and 32 did not fully implement that was inflicted losses of billions of rupees to the national exchequer.
He further said that the government officials are playing their keen role in promoting products of international firms, instead of giving maximum priority to local IT companies in this regard. Rizvi blamed that government departments had always given priority to the products of foreign firms as compared to national manufacturing items, relating to information technology. He said the local IT companies did not compete with international brands due to strict terms of reference (ToRs), for awarding contracts of various projects.
Flanked by the company's Director Operation, Abdul Rauf Khan and Area Manager Nazar Shaheen, he asked the federal and provincial governments to relax Public Procurement Rules, by abolishing clause of 36 (2), regarding technical and financial proposals.