Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa assembly: Public Procurement Bill passed after two years

Special authority will be created to procure goods and services for govt departments.

PESHAWAR: The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Assembly passed the NWFP Public Procurement of Goods, Works and Services Bill, 2012 on Monday after remaining frozen for two years.

Under the bill, which was presented back in 2010 a special authority is to be set up for procurement of goods and services for government departments, ensuring transparency.

The authority will be supervised by a Board of Directors and headed by the finance secretary. It will comprise secretaries of planning and development department, works and services, irrigation and health department as well as three members from the civil society, trade and industry sector.

The managing director of the bill will be a grade-20 civil servant or a professional having 15 years of experience in procurement and services and will be hired for a three-year term.

During the session, most of the amendments in the bill were presented by K-P Finance Minister Engineer Humayun Khan, on which PPP parliamentary leader Abdul Akbar Khan and PPP’s (Sherpao) Israrullah Gandapur  raised their objections and said this was ‘intellectual unfairness’, adding that the amendments were old.

The house also approved amendments presented by MPA Shazia Aurangzeb and Noor Sahar in the bill.

The ANP-led government had brought the bill to the assembly floor two years back, but they failed to get it passed after several proposals. The bill was finally passed after incorporating 12 amendments, most of which were proposed by the finance minister himself. To eliminate corruption, the entire record of the procurement authority will be available online.

Earlier, Speaker Kiramatullah Khan, while keeping the adjourn­ment motion of Gan­da­pur, asked both the mover and concerned minister to discuss the issue in the speaker’s chamber on Tuesday (today).

In his adjournment motion, Gandapur said that reportedly 3,400 kanals of agricultural land in DI Khan was distributed to influential people in collusion with officials from the revenue department.

He further said that the government should refer the issue to a committee to investigate, adding that he had documented proof of the corruption. He also said that he has information that the civil judge, who was dealing with the case, had committed suicide. “The matter is of serious concern and will earn a bad name for the government if not addressed quickly,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 4^th, 2012.