LPG/NGL extraction project: Contempt plea filed against OGDC

Petitioner terms opening-up of bids for project as ‘contempt of court’.

ISLAMABAD: Kundi Construction has filed a contempt petition before a senior civil judge in Rawalpindi against the Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDC) for opening-up bids for a multi-billion- dollar project, which it said was “tantamount to contempt of court”.

The move by Kundi Construction, an interested party, comes in reference to a story by the Express investigative cell titled “Multi- billion-dollar scam: secret deal for extraction of LPG/NGL project”.

Kundi Construction, in its petition, said, “We are shocked to read a story that OGDC in violation of the court’s previous orders opened-up the bid of a party on December 14, in total violation of the orders of the learned judge passed on December 8”.

It added that following the filing of the petition by the plaintiff, the learned judge had restrained OGDCL from opening up bids.

Kundi Construction has pleaded before the court that it had purchased a bid document to participate in the bidding process, but could not summit it. Thus, only one bid was opened up by the OGDC.

Kundi Construction, in its petition, further said, “All decisions on this tender are being made by the defendant. It prays that defendant may be summoned and punished for willfully violating status quo orders of the learned civil judge; It added that the wrong malicious acts of the defendant in violation of the status quo orders of this learned court may be declared void ab initio.

The Express investigative cell had carried a story on December 16, on the bidding process of a multi-billion-dollar project of extracting LPG/NGL from the Kunnar Pasakhi gas field.

The report revealed that OGDC was set to strike a secret deal with JJVL, a Lahore-based LPG tycoon, for the multi-billion-dollar award of contract. The pre-bid correspondence was in sheer violation of Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 24^th, 2011.