Ensuring transparency: AJK enforces PPRA rules: minister

Says the rules ended decades old system of direct contracting

MUZAFFARABAD: Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Minister for Works and Communication Chaudhary Muhammad Aziz on Sunday said that government has saved Rs680.28 million by introducing Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules in the state.

Addressing a press conference, he said, “Present government for the first time took a revolutionary step to ensure transparency and competitive bidding system in Azad Kashmir by awarding contracts of 37 projects of 445 kilometres roads and 764 meters bridges under the PPRA rules and ended decades old direct contracting system and blackmailing of the contractor mafia.”

He said that the contractors are bound under contractual obligations to complete the construction work in line with the tendering specification within the specified time.

“The contracts are awarded to the lowest bidders against the cash guarantee to ensure that contractor will complete the project within the estimated cost and in precise time,” he said. The minister added that two separate committees have been constituted to award the contracts under rules and complaints committees are also working to address the complaints of contractors and general public.

He claimed that the AJK government is striving hard to reform the contract awarding system and said that the pool system has been completely eliminated after the enforcement of PPRA rules in Azad Kashmir.

Aziz said that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government has not dropped any development project of the previous government. “Seven phases of previous projects have been completed and development of phase 8 is under way,” he added.

The minister said that tenders committee of the government awards tenders to the qualified contractors or companies keeping in view their technical and financial capacity.

He said that all 37 development projects of 445 kilometres roads and 764 meters bridges of estimated cost Rs8.13 billion were awarded through the transparent bidding system, which resulted into huge saving of public money.

Aziz invited the media persons to visit the under construction projects in all districts of Azad Kashmir and point out anomalies in the construction work, if they found any.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, June 25^th, 2018.