‘Violation of rules’: NTDC contract award challenged in LHC

Petitioner seeks court directive for NTDC to revise its decision

LAHORE: Lahore High Court sought a reply on Wednesday from the National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC) on a petition challenging the award of a hardware supply contract to a Turkish company, allegedly, in violation of rules.

The NTDC had opened a tender for procurement of material, accessories and dampers, wire and other items for a 500KV Transmission Line from Neelum-Jhelum Hydro Project to Domeli. Five companies from various countries had participated in the bidding. Through a local agent in Pakistan, Messrs Mosdorfer of Austria, one of the bidding participants, challenged the contract awarded to SA-RA, a Turkish company.

On behalf of the petitioner, Advocate Azhar Siddique argued that the NTDC had awarded the contract to the Turkish company in violation of procurement rules.

He said the respondent company did not have the requisite experience and the qualification it had mentioned on papers was based on bogus claims because 500KV Transmission Lines, as mentioned by the respondent-company in experience sheets, did not exist in respective end-users’ networks.

He said the bid evaluation had been manipulated in clear violation of procurement rules. The advocate asked the court to cancel the contract awarded to the respondent company and direct the NTDC to award it to the petitioner-company which was a qualified bidder. Justice Farrukh Irfan Khan issued a notice to the NTDC for a reply by April 30.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 23^rd, 2015.