‘Autonomous procurement committee bought school furniture’

A central procurement committee had undertaken the entire process to buy the furniture for the government-run schools in Sindh in an independent and autonomous manner, without any undue interference, including that from any provincial minister.

This was stated by Sindh Information and Labour Minister Saeed Ghani, who was the former education minister, and the present Education and Culture Minister Syed Sardar Ali Shah on Wednesday.

They were addressing a news conference at the provincial assembly to respond to the allegations that school furniture was being procured by the Sindh government at exorbitant rates.

Both the ministers rejected the allegations levelled by PA opposition leader Haleem Adil Shaikh in this regard, and asked him to provide evidence to prove his allegedly baseless accusations.

They said that the Central Procurement Committee formed for the purpose had taken into confidence the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Transparency International, the Sindh High Court (SHC) and the Anti-Corruption Establishment at every stage of the purchasing procedure while asking these authorities to nominate a representative to become part of the process.

They said that a sum of Rs3.6 billion would be spent to purchase furniture for the government-run schools in Sindh. Ghani said that a sum of Rs1 billion as part of the procurement deal would be paid by the selected bidder as government taxes and transportation charges for the deal.

He said that it was completely unjust on the part of some Sindhi-language TV news channels to assume that the latest procurement deal was meant to embezzle Rs3 billion from the provincial exchequer.

He also said that the media and provincial opposition lawmakers had made allegedly baseless claims that corruption to the tune of billions of rupees would be committed in the latest procurement deal of the Sindh government.

He further said that furniture for the government-run schools had not been purchased for the past eight years, so in the year 2018 it had been decided to constitute a central procurement committee for the purpose that would do its work with absolute independence and autonomy, with eminent persons from the province appointed as its members.

Ghani said that the committee’s head was eminent educationist and IBA University Sukkur Vice-Chancellor Nisar Siddiqui, with the members including former Sindh governor Lt Gen (retd) Moinuddin Haider, Transparency International Executive Director Saad Rashid and other officials, in accordance with the policy of the Sindh Public Procurement Regulatory Authority.

The procurement committee in question rescinded the first tender of the procurement deal due to a lower bid than the cost of the consignment and furniture of a lesser quality to be supplied to fulfil the deal, he added.

The minister said that tenders had been floated once again in 2019, with the bids at that time ranging between Rs21,000 and Rs29,000, but later on a person moved the SHC and secured a stay order against the prospective procurement deal.

He said that the stay order was later on vacated by the court in 2020, but that tender was again cancelled due to less time available to complete the contract by Mir Muhammad Shah, who later became the IBA University Sukkur VC and head of the procurement committee after Siddiqui’s death.

He added that the committee once again floated the tender for the deal in January 2021, while all the details of the deal were sent to the NAB Sindh director general a day before the finalisation of the contract, with the request to complete the investigation into every step of the process.

The minister said that the NAB Sindh replied to the request on July 7, 2021 that it could not become part of the procurement deal, as later on it could take action if it received any complaint regarding the deal.

Ghani said that they had done their best to make sure that the entire procurement deal remained fully transparent and corruption-free, adding that later on the process had begun to purchase the school furniture.

He said that they reserved the right to take legal action if no evidence was provided by the opposition legislators to prove their allegations of corruption against him, the Sindh chief minister and the top leadership of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party.

Replying to a question, Ghani said that the letter of Transparency International had become the basis of the latest allegations levelled by the opposition leader in this connection, but the letter in question had not raised any objection against the procurement committee or against the process of procurement itself.

He said that those who had been levelling allegations against him and also allegedly implicating the company of his brother in the procurement deal should first present proofs to prove their “baseless” allegations.