Laptop scheme: Rs230m penalty on supplier proposed to be waived

The penalty was imposed by former Higher Education secretary in September.

LAHORE:

The planning and general wing of Education department has moved a proposal to waive a Rs230 million fine imposed on a company for violating an agreement with the government for supply of 110,000 laptops under the Chief Minister’s Youth Initiative, The Express Tribune has learnt.

The proposal was prepared by section officer Javed Haider and submitted by the deputy secretary with comments from the additional secretary, was moved in the first week of December.

In 2001, the government announced to distribute 100,000 free laptops among deserving students studying at public sector colleges and universities.

The government earmarked Rs2 billion in annual budget 2011-12 for this purpose. Later it was revised to Rs4.4 billion as the target increased from 100,000 to 110,000 laptops.



The government invited supply bids in November 2011.

Three firms showed interest and Inbox, the lowest bidder, was awarded the contract in December 2011. The government agreed purchase Dell laptops on set specifications for Rs37,700 per laptop. Supply of laptop bags was also included in the agreement. The company was to offer a 16-month warranty of software repair and replacement of hardware in case a fault occurred as part of the deal.

A warranty agreement was signed and Inbox deposited Rs400 million as security with the government.

According to the warranty agreement, the company was to remove all software faults reported at its service centres by the custodian of the laptop within seven days of the complaint.

After seven days, the company was to be fined Rs1,000 by government each day for every faulty laptop. The company was to replace the laptops if any hardware faults were found within 60 days of delivery. The warranty period was decided 16 months from the date of delivery of equipment to government by the company.

An official of the Education Department said an average 25 to 35 complaints were received by the company every day from students who received the laptops from the government supplied by Inbox.

He said the company began to delay replacement of a large number of laptops with hardware faults when the Education Department cleared the outstanding payment of Rs4 billion.

Over this, the government’s Information Lab Project in collaboration with the Education Department devised a mechanism to calculate the fines and announced a penalty of Rs230 million which was imposed on Inbox by the former Higher Education secretary in September 2013.

The official said as a result, the department withheld the Rs400 million security deposited with the government.

However, the planning and general wing of the Education Department moved a proposal to the secretary, saying the fine was not fairly calculated and should be waived.

An official close to the development said the supplier was pressing for reimbursement of the warranty funds.

He claimed that officials of planning and development wing had reached a deal with the supplier and wanted to facilitate the company.

When contacted, Higher Education Secretary Tariq Mehmood Khan confirmed that a fine had been imposed on the supplier according to the warranty agreement.

However, he denied having knowledge of a proposal to waive off the penalty.

“I will deal the issue according to the agreement and rules,” Khan said. “The company has to pay the fine if it deviates from the agreement.”

Inbox executive Yawar Sohail and company head Adnan Afzal declined to comment on the issue.

Section officer Javed Haider declined to comment on the issue.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 19^th, 2013.