By the book: NAB objects to FWO’s tender notice

LAHORE:

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has directed the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) to follow Pakistan Procurement Regulatory Authority

(PPRA) rules while advertising tenders, The Express Tribune has learnt.

The FWO recently advertised a tender notice for supply of recovery vehicles. The NAB said the tender was advertised in violation of rules.

On September 5, the NAB wrote to the FWO director general and pointed out that the tender notice advertised was in violation of Rule 13 of PPRA Rules, 2004. PPRA Rule 13 states, “The procuring agency may decide the response time for receipt of bids or proposals (including proposals for pre-qualification) from the date of publication of an advertisement or notice, keeping in view the individual procurement’s complexity, availability and urgency. However, under no circumstances the response time shall be less than fifteen days for national competitive bidding and thirty days for international competitive bidding from the date of publication of advertisement or notice. All advertisements or notices shall expressly mention the response time allowed for that particular procurement along with the information for collection of bid documents which shall be issued till a given date, allowing sufficient time to complete and submit the bid by the closing date.

The letter asked the FWO to follow the defined procedures in the future.

Hafiz Muhammad Irfan, a NAB spokesman, confirmed that the bureau had written to the FWO. He said under Section 33-C of the National Accountability Ordinance 1999, NAB is mandated to have checks on procurements and auctions to check corruption.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 15^th, 2014.