Cabinet likely to approve housing loan contract

Successful bidder will disburse Rs5b worth of interest-free housing loans

ISLAMABAD: The cabinet, which is scheduled to meet on Tuesday, is likely to give the go-ahead to the Ministry of Housing and Works for the award of Rs5-billion interest-free loan disbursement contract to a single bidder under the low-cost housing scheme.

The Ministry of Housing has approached the cabinet, seeking its nod for giving the contract to the lone bidder for disbursing Rs5 billion in interest-free loans under the housing project.

In relation to the Naya Pakistan Housing Programme, the federal government has expressed interest in starting an interest-free housing loan scheme. Under the programme, the government intends to provide loans with a total fund of Rs5 billion and without seeking any interest payments. The amount may be increased or decreased based on the need.

Sources told The Express Tribune that bids and proposals had been invited in relation to the scheme through the print media and websites of the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) and the Ministry of Housing. In response to the advertisements, Akhuwat emerged as the only microfinance institution and non-governmental organisation (NGO) that participated in the bidding, seeking the contract as the service provider for the low-cost housing scheme.

Afterward, the PPRA was approached to seek its opinion on receiving the single bid and in light of its comments, the Ministry of Housing proceeded on the issue.

To supervise the process, the constitution of a technical advisory committee under the Naya Pakistan Housing Programme was notified. Accordingly, Riaz Ahmed and Company chartered accountant - a member of Nexia International, a worldwide network of international auditors - qualified for assisting in the selection of the service provider organisation for the housing scheme and for carrying out verification and validation for the disbursement and recovery of interest-free loans. Later, Akhuwat qualified as the service provider organisation.

Riaz Ahmed and Company drafted a service agreement, which was evaluated and approved by the technical advisory committee. The draft was also accepted by Akhuwat.

The agreed draft was forwarded to the Law and Justice Division and Finance Division, which recommended some changes to the agreement.

The amendments were discussed in a meeting of the technical advisory committee, where representatives of Akhuwat and the Finance Division were also present.

The final mutually agreed agreement was vetted by the Law and Justice Division and later it was submitted to the cabinet for formal approval.

Appellate tribunal

The cabinet will also consider the appointment of chairman and two members of the Anti-dumping Appellate Tribunal, Islamabad on a contract basis.

Recommendations for appointing the chairman and members have been sent as a single nomination, which was accepted by the Cabinet Committee for Disposal of Legislative Cases.

The cabinet was requested to ratify the committee’s recommendations for hiring Nasir Masroor Ahmed as chairman and Ather Saleem and Samaira Nazir Siddiqui as members of the appellate tribunal.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 20^th, 2019.

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