The Punjab Government is initiating Mega Projects in the province during the fiscal year 2016-17 by involving and ensuring partnership of international & national consultancy firms and companies. This was stated by Punjab Secretary Planning & Development Iftikhar Ali Sahoo by addressing a seminar titled "Pre-qualification for consulting firms under the concept of capacity building of government departments", organised by DG, M&E, P&D held in the Auditorium of P&D Complex here on Wednesday.
Representatives of more than 20 reputed national and international firms attended the introductory seminar while detailed co-ordination would remain intact through pre-bid meetings and electronic/telephonic communication. Sahoo said the Government is engaging academia, civil society organisations, companies, businesses, firms and consultants to improve the quality of its services provided to the people through modern techniques and models implied by national and international consultants. Over the years Punjab Government has tried to bring in the competency and technical expertise of private consultants.
He iterated that contractors and consultants were development partners while P&DD approved development projects of Rs 400 billion plus for the current financial year. Secretary P&D said the Government department's capacity to conceive high quality projects needs to be upgraded for which the demand of consultants is undeniable. The Punjab Government mandate was much beyond the pre-qualification.
Director General (M&E), P&D welcomed all the representatives of Consulting Firms to attend the Pre-qualification Seminar that will help in understanding amendment in PPRA Rules 2014 and subsequent prequalification for the financial year 2016-17 by P&D Department with 09th May 2016 as closing date for applying. He said that consultants were important than contractors as the former designs projects on which Government allocated public funds and the projects must be rationally designed to get best returns out of the public spending. He added because of resource constraints the Punjab government was moving towards Private Public Partnership (PPP) mode to address acute public issues without worrying much about monetary obligations. Addressing the seminar, Dr Shabana Haider Member Health, P&D Board said instead of adopting stereotype skills and techniques, the consultants might also uplift their quality on grounds of current scientific practices.