Bidders allege govt floated tailored-made tenders just to favour a specific supplier
PHOTO: FILE
On the direction of the Punjab School Education Department, headmasters of various high schools across Punjab have floated tenders on Punjab Procurement Regulatory Authority’s website for procurement of ActivPanel interactive smart boards, software and teachers’ training.
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Business houses dealing with interactive smart boards technologies have highlighted that the government has violated Section 10 of the Public Procurement Rules, 2004, by mentioning brand name ‘ActivPanel’ and ‘ActivInspire’ which were the proprietary products of Promethean World, a company founded in the United Kingdom.
Syed Zeeshan Gillani, an importer of interactive smart boards, has alleged that the government has floated tailored-made tenders just to favour one specific supplier. Terms and conditions mentioned in tender documents clearly show that the government does not want fair competition in procurement of interactive smart boards, he said, adding the government has set an unrealistic deadline of 15 days for delivery of around 600 interactive smart boards after acceptance of bid.
“We are in this business for over 15 years but we do not know any company in Pakistan which maintains such a huge inventory. Interactive smart boards prices range between Rs300,000 to Rs400,000 per unit. Generally, companies maintain small inventory of few piece as it is a slow selling product,” he said.
Another interactive smart boards vendor in Hafeez Centre, Muhammad Iqbal, said the government has advertised these tenders in a very ‘notorious manner’ otherwise it floats a single tender and gets the benefit of bulk buying. “There is a price difference of around 30% between bulk and single unit price,” he said and hinted that it seemed the government has already procured or fixed a deal with some supplier and now it was just trying to fulfill formalities.
Vendors allege the government has laid down an unrealistic criterion for prospective bidders. Documents show that a bidder company with minimum of 15-year education, training and management consultancy experience, should have worked with international donors, like the United Nations (UN), Asian Development Bank (ADB), Department for International Development (DFID), the World Bank and the USAID, for a minimum of six years combined.
The prospective bidder should also have worked with government departments for a minimum of 10 years combined. It should have an experience of minimum five projects in interactive e-content for classrooms in public sector. It should have an experience of minimum five projects in ICT assisted infrastructure sales and supply.
It should have an interactive learning content development team consisting of education content specialists having minimum three years of experience.
The prospective bidder should also have in-house teachers’ training team having a minimum of three years experience individually in teachers’ trainings on interactive classrooms solutions. All the products required by the School Education Department Punjab in the said tender must be provided on turnkey basis; partial bids would not be accepted. It should have authorisation certificate from the manufacturer. It should have an average annual turnover of more than Rs100 million (for past three years). It must have a valid registration with income tax and sales tax departments and it should not be black-listed by any federal/provincial governments in Pakistan.
The elementary and secondary education department of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa last year rolled out a similar project of 600 interactive boards with an investment of Rs260 million. Now the Punjab government is also following the suit but it has chosen a jittery path, said a private business executive who is aware of the project.
He told The Tribune that Punjab government is working on this project since June 2017, but it has failed to even roll out a pilot project. Initially, Punjab Education Minister Rana Mashood was of the view that the government would start a pilot project during summer vacations and the project will be executed as a whole. But now suddenly, the government has opened hundreds of tenders in haste which clearly shows government intention, he maintained.
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Sonia Saleem, Socio Engineer Consultants CEO - the company which represents Promethean World in Pakistan - tried to dispel the impression that the government was trying to favour her company. She said her company was working with several public and private sector institutions in Pakistan and has good track record. “It is not true,” she claimed, “that the government has mentioned specification of their products only.”
She highlighted that her company was not only offering technology solutions to educational institutions but it was also helping them in building missing infrastructure, especially in public sector.
“Recently, we built washrooms in some public schools as part of our corporate social responsibility. Our company is also offering scholarships to deserving students,” she highlighted.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 19th, 2018.
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