In a letter sent on December 24, Director General, CAA Air Marshal Khalid Chaudhry (Retd) has been requested to examine the allegation and if the charges of award of contract to M/s R Q Consultants are found true, cancel the contract and recover all payments made "as these payments are deemed to be illegal. Advisor, TI-Pakistan, Syed Adil Gilani said despite having its own information technology wing, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has hired an IT consultancy firm, apparently at an exorbitant cost and without advertising the process in the media as required under the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority Rules.
The use of Single Source Method of selection under the PPRA rules for consultants is allowed under clause (c) or (d) of rule 42 of the Public Procurement Rules, 2004 only in case when only one consultant is qualified or has experience. It has also been reported that M/s R.Q. Consultants are not even qualified to be awarded the contract as they are not enlisted with Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC), and without a valid registration and licence issued by PEC, no consultant can be awarded any contract. Several IT Consultants are registered with PEC having all type of experience in such field as CAA wants.
Another requirement to use the Single Source Method of selection under the PPRA Rules for consultants quoted below is that prior approval of Federal Secretary Ministry of Defence shall be obtained before initiating the process of hiring the consultant.
"PPRA -Procurement of Consultancy Services Regulations, 2010, Regulation 3 (D): Single source or direct selection, procedures for selection under single source selection, a) the justification for single source selection method shall be examined in the context of the overall interests of the procuring agency to ensure economy and efficiency and provide equal opportunity to all eligible consultants, therefore, the decision to use the single source selection method shall be approved in writing by the principal accounting officer, concerned on recommendation by a Committee".
In a similar case, where three individual experts were appointed by PTA for 3G auction, it was declared illegal by the NAB, and the Ministry of Finance has also reprimanded PTA for this wrongdoing, and has ordered PTA to follow Public Procurement Rules. Adil Gilani said Finance Division CF Wing, on December 20, 2012 wrote a letter to the Cabinet Secretariat inviting attention to Cabinet Secretariat note on the auction of 3G Spectrum license and stated that PTA may carry out the hiring process of consultant of international repute as per provisions of PPRA rules 2004.
The Finance Ministry has also barred Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) from violating Public Procurement Rules in hiring consultants for auction of one to two billion dollars 3G spectrum clearly mentioning that "no deviation from the rules may be allowed or tolerated under any circumstances", the documents reveal, he said.
TI-Pakistan advisor said that National Accountability Bureau has already declared the hiring of consultants by PTA in violation of PPRA Rules in its letter issued on December 19, 2012. While on the other hand, PTA's member finance had also sent a letter to the secretary Cabinet Division on December 17, 2012 citing all the irregularities in hiring of consultants by the PTA chairman.
PPRA Ordinance 2002 and the Public Procurement Rules 2004 have closed the chapter of corruption and pick and chose by procuring agency including CAA, which is continuously manipulating and bypassing the Public Procurement Rules 2004. TI-Pakistan also required CAA to respond to its letter of May 30, 2012 in which it was pointed out that CAA was alleged to be trying to award the contract to M/s Asia Petroleum Limited (APL) at Rs 0.40 per litre, whereas according to the bid documents requirements, the contract has to be awarded to the highest bidder, and M/s Pakistan State Oil, who had quoted Rs 1.01 per litre being the highest bidder were being denied the contract. "It means that Exchequer will lose Rs 0.61 per litre on every revenue of Rs 0.40 per litre, which is 150 percent more than what PSO will be paying to Civil Aviation Authority," Adil Gilani said.
Copies of the letter have been forwarded for the information of: Chairman, Public Accounts Committee, Islamabad, Chairman, NAB, Islamabad, Secretary Ministry of Defence, Islamabad, Registrar, Supreme Court of Pakistan, Islamabad, Auditor General, Islamabad, and Managing Director, PPRA, Islamabad - with a request to take action under section 5(2) (a) "monitor application of the laws, rules, regulations, policies and procedures in respect of or relating to, procurement" and under section 5(2) (i) of the PPRA Ordinance 2002.