Online tender process sidelines contractors with little internet access: GCA

Contractors threatens to suspend all construction work on current projects if the new tender policy is not revised.

HARIPUR:

Government contractors rejected the online tender system recently introduced by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government and threatened to suspend construction on government projects if their demands went unheeded.

The decision was taken at a Government Contractors Association (GCA) Haripur meeting on Sunday. GCA district and provincial presidents Tahirur Rehman and Rustum Khan were in attendance.

The new policy which binds contractors to win new contracts and seek consultancy roles by participating in an online tender process was discussed at length at the meeting. Participants deemed it an “unwise and impractical” move since many contractors either have no internet access or no knowledge of how to avail this new facility.

When the PTI-led government was formed, contractors sighed with relief as they assumed the government would leave the previous tendering and bidding method intact, pointed out GCA provincial head Rehman. But taking things online has only made things more difficult for contractors.

Rehman went on to criticise the provincial government for not revising the rates paid to the government service providers even after the price of construction material and services have witnessed unprecedented inflation over the last few years.

The provincial president threatened contractors would suspend all construction work on current projects if the new tender policy was not revised and protest in Peshawar on October 15. Meanwhile, a delegation of government service providers from Kohistan called on provincial minister for communication and works Yousaf Ayub Khan at his residence in Haripur. The contractors complained residents of a remote district where few have access to electricity or the internet were at a disadvantage with this new policy. The online system would deprive over 400 contractors of their right to participate in tenders.

The group sought exemption from the online tender process and another policy regarding licences of contractors. Yousaf assured them their problems would be laid before the cabinet.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 23^rd, 2013.