KARACHI: Subscribers suffer as inquiry 17 in limbo
By Bahzad Alam Khan
KARACHI, Oct 25: The Pakistan Telecommunication Company has failed to establish a decentralized inquiry number 17 despite a lapse of two years because of red tape, clash of egos and suspicions of foul play.
Well-placed sources told Dawn that the PTCL would have succeeded in establishing the inquiry number 17 at 24 exchanges had a private party, which had submitted the lowest bid, would not have become suspected of being supported by a top official of the PTCL.
They added that some two years ago the PTCL had invited private parties to establish the decentralized inquiry number 17. The project had been titled CDAS (Computerized Directory Assistance System).
A spokesman for the PTCL admitted that the existing inquiry number setup was almost ineffective. He explained: The former centralized inquiry number 17 has long outlived its usefulness. It was designed for 250,000 subscribers. It cannot handle the 800,000 subscribers that the PTCL has at present.
The company Future Technologies which had come up with the lowest bid and technically compliant specifications had come under a cloud when it had become known that it had been the favourite company of a high official of the PTCL, insiders told Dawn.
The chief executive officer of the Future Technologies, Ali Zaman Beg, declined to comment on the delay in establishing the dencentralized inquiry number on the plea that under the terms stipulated in the tender he could not do anything to influence the process of bidding.
The fact that people think that I am being supported by a top official of the PTCL has become my greatest liability, he said.
The sources said that on the directive of the chairman the PTCL had obtained an out-of-court-settlement with the parties involved that had gone into litigation over a certain clause of the tender.
They said that the army monitoring team had been roped in by the PTCL, and bids for the establishment of the decentralized inquiry number 17 had been re-invited. Much to the chagrin of PTCL high-ups, the Future Technologies had again come up with the lowest bid (Rs39 million) and technically-compliant specifications.
This time around, the insiders added, the second lowest bid (Rs54 million) had been offered by the Carrier Telephone Industries (CTI) a sister concern of the PTCL followed by a Chinese company, ZTE. In this way, a tussle had started between the Islamabad-based CTI and the Future Technologies.
The insiders disclosed that both CTI and Future Technologies had been asked to establish inquiry setups at PECHS and Clifton exchanges, respectively, on an experimental basis. The idea was to check if they could practically do what they were offering, they said.
They added that while the ZTE had opted out, the CTI and the Future Technologies had established inquiry 17 at PECHS and Clifton, respectively, on an experimental basis.
PTCL officials told Dawn that a high-level committee, comprising mostly Islamabad-based officials, had been entrusted with the task of evaluating the systems established by the CTI and the Future Technologies. They added that the situation had compounded when the committee had suggested that both companies be asked to run their experimental setups for at least three months. The situation worsened when it was alleged that this had been suggested because the CTI had needed time to remove its hardware and software deficiencies.
The PTCL officials said that another committee had been formed to evaluate the systems established by the two companies. This time around, the committee had been headed by Karachi-based Mr Khan. No one was surprised when the committee came to the conclusion that the previous committee had not made a comparative analysis of the two systems. It also concluded that the system installed by the Future Technologies was technically compliant, they added.
In order to ensure that the evaluation performed by the committee was not challenged, the PTCL DG ordered that both setups at PECHS and Clifton were sealed, the sources said.
