Motorists suffer as deadlock continues

Punjab government has not decided on the final bid

LAHORE: The Punjab government and bureaucracy are deadlocked on the issuance of a contract for the computerisation of number plates.

The provincial government wants to give a no-bid contract to National Radio Telecommunication Corporation (NRTC), while the excise, finance and a host of other departments claim that under the public procurement rules, the contract cannot be given to any company, including a government one, without open tendering.

Excise department representatives went as far as saying in their report that while NRTC has the required machinery, it does not have the experience or capacity to provide hundreds of thousands of plates. The Excise department has proposed dividing the contract among multiple companies issuing a license to more than one person in the form of a summary to CM Punjab. According to information gathered by Express, more than 800,000 people have not gotten computerised number plates, despite having submitted all the fees, as there is a severe shortage. This backlog is increasing by the day.

Although three companies had initially bid for the contract, two withdrew before their bids were opened, both citing the rupee’s crash against the dollar. The provincial government has not decided on the final bid.

In the meantime, the state-owned NRTC, which operates under the defence ministry, showed interest in picking up the contract and has held meetings with provincial and federal officials. Excise department officials then went to inspect the NRTC factory in Haripur and sent the report, which reposed confidence in NRTC’s equipment, but not its experience or capacity.

Sources said that the government is trying to address the strong reservations from various quarters and to avoid any blame, the contract has not been given to the tender bidder or NRTC. The sources also added that a few days ago, Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar received a summary from the excise department which suggested that there might be some problems in giving contracts to only one company.

The summary suggested that the excise department, with the cooperation of other departments, set the manufacturing standards and other details prior to issuing the contract, while also splitting the work among multiple companies.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 5^th, 2019.