FIA ‘tasked’ to probe ARY’s agreement with PTV Sports

Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb on Saturday said the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) was tasked with probing into an agreement between PTV Sports and GroupM.

Addressing a news conference, she said that an amendment sought cable and satellite broadcasters, which was not a condition of the pre-requisition notice for Ten Sports and International Cricket Council (ICC) rights when the bids were invited. She added that the terms of reference which were issued later were different from the expression of interest (EoI) notice.

The minister said that the bids came in on August 27, while they were officially opened on August 28 last year, and four companies GroupM (represented by ARY), Blitz Advertising, Tower Sports, and Trade Chronicle were marked for public-private partnership.

She mentioned that Trade Chronicle was disqualified on technical grounds, which left GroupM, Blitz Advertising, and Tower Sports. She claimed that the EoI notices were changed at each stage.

Marriyum said that on August 28, the review committee awarded markings, with Blitz Advertising scoring 182 out of 300, GroupM scoring 167, and Tower Sports scoring 131 points. The committee then signed the scores and issued a letter in this regard, which was signed by the director sports, director finance, director engineering, chief commercial officer and director of administration and personnel.

She pointed out that the letter had explicitly mentioned that Blitz Advertising had earned the most points and had given a better partnership deal, while some things would be decided prior to the agreement with the company.

“Then, on August 28, a note goes to the PTV MD stating that two of three companies have been selected,” she said. “The note states that the committee is saying that we have selected these two companies and we want to go into further discussion with them but the committee did not say so.”

She said that the committee issued a letter to Blitz Advertising, saying that it was selected on account of its higher score. “Blitz Advertising has previously partnered with PTV on a project,” she added.

The information minister said that talks resumed on September 1 last year, in which it was decided that the “failed company” would succeed. “Marks were changed, terms were changed, and re-marking was done,” she said, adding that in order to make the company succeed, it was said that the PPRA Rules were not applicable to it.

Marriyum said that the committee asked to negotiate with the selected company, but the company of choice was selected after re-marking. The total marks were increased to 350 to award it 50 extra points, she added.

She said that through this process, the company that had originally succeeded was ignored and the preferred company was awarded the contract.