The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)-led government has set a record by committing 15,767 violations of the rules of the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) in the award of tenders for as many projects approved during the last four years, reflecting massive corruption and misappropriation in blatant violation of laid down rules and regulations.
These violations are communicated by PPRA for corrective measures in line with Public Procurement Rules of 2004. This action by PPRA at the start of procurement enables the federal government entities to strictly adhere to transparent procurement according to the rules.
According to official documents available with Pakistan Today, 3,280 violations were recorded during March 1, 2008 to June 30, 2008 while another 4,720 violations were committed during July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009. The documents reveal that the government committed another 3,883 violations from July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010 while another 2,738 violations were committed from July 1, 2010 to June 30, 2011. The period from July 1, 2011 to January 31, 2012 showed another 1,146 violations of PPRA rules.
“These violations mean deficiency in uploaded tender notices in description of procurement on the PPRA website with regard to PPRA Rules, 2004. The authority uploads the tender notices issued by the public sector procuring agencies to its website on a daily basis,” said an official source commenting on the details of the documents.
He said the uploaded tenders were examined in the light of PPRA Rules, 2004 and violations (if any) were indicated to the procuring agencies concerned to take corrective measures.
The PPRA has no mandate and capacity to examine all procurements transaction-wise. The audit of procurement is done by the auditor general of Pakistan and misprocurements are reported to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) for necessary action.
EXEMPTIONS BY PPRA BOARD: The contracts of Defence Ministry and Defence Production Ministry are already exempt from tendering because of the sensitivity of the nature of the projects and for accountability of such projects, the principal accountant of these ministries monitors such projects. However, the PPRA board, which is headed by the finance secretary, granted exemption to five projects which included the construction of PPMI complex, Rehman Baba Hostel, Kabul, and the award of consultancy work to NESPAK on negotiated rates for construction of an underpass at the railway crossing in Gujjar Khan.
The board also considered the issue of payment of a bill for printing a report of the parliamentary committee on Balochistan amounting to Rs 176,000, for exemption from PPRA Rules, 2004. The government also gave a one-time relaxation of PPRA rules for import of 0.75 million tonnes of white sugar by the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP).
Moreover, exemptions were also given in 2008 by the PPRA board to the procurement of equipment by Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO); purchase of monitoring equipment for mobile command post by the Interior Ministry; tendering for National Internship Programme (NIP) functions by the Establishment Division, and hiring of an event manager by the National Vocational and Technical Education Commission (NAVTEC), Prime Minister’s Secretariat.
The exemptions were recommended by the PPRA board under Section 21 of the PPRA Ordinance, 2002 to the federal government for approval from the applicability of PPRA Rules, 2004. The PPRA board headed by the finance secretary recommends the exemptions keeping in view national interest, transparency, situation/circumstances and nature of procurement to be made.
