ISLAMABAD: The efforts to develop Park Enclave are likely to backfire as the Capital Development Authority (CDA) has allegedly tailor-made the pre-qualification process to accommodate its blue-eyed contractor.

Incidentally, not only the contractors working with the CDA have pointed out gross misappropriations in the bidding process but also some of the officials in the engineering department have opposed the idea of awarding the contract against the rules.

Under the existing criteria, the contracting firm has to be registered in an appropriate class with the Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC).

The contractor should have successfully completed a project of similar nature during the last five years and possess strong technical as well as financial capabilities to complete the work.

In the first week of July, the CDA made changes to the pre-qualification criteria.

On July 14, out of the 32 competing firms, only two were shortlisted to complete the infrastructure works at Park Enclave worth around Rs1 billion.

However, later two more firms were added to the list. Sources in the civic body said the two firms were added only to supplement the changes made in the pre-qualification criteria.

The amended pre-qualification criteria stated that the contractor must have the experience of completing housing infrastructure development work worth Rs1 billion, road and storm water drain system with Rs500 million, external electricity and water and sewerage works worth RsRs235 million and most importantly bridges worth Rs300 million.

The pre-qualification document said the contractor must have competed three of these projects in 10 years and three such projects should be in hand to get technical points.

Senior officials in the civic body acknowledged that the new criteria was out of context as there was no need to have the experience of building a large bridge.

“There is not a single large bridge in Park Enclave but the documents have demanded around three bridges of Rs300 each,” said an official of the engineering department.

The work on Park Enclave is worth Rs1 billion but the pre-qualification documents call for a contractor with the experience of three projects worth more than Rs2 billion each.

While the chairman CDA, Maroof Afzal, was not available to respond to the allegations, a spokesman for the civic body said the criteria had been enhanced to upgrade the standard of the contracting firms.

Meanwhile, a delegation of CDA contractors association recently held a meeting with the chairman CDA to register their protest against what they termed the improper bidding process.

Sources in the civic body said the contractors informed the chairman that the criteria for the pre-qualification of contractors had been changed deliberately only to accommodate a few favourite contractors.

The bias was alleged for a Lahore-based firm and the contractors said the remaining three firms had been shortlisted only to justify the whole process.

A CDA official, who declined to be quoted, said initially only two firms had been picked for pre-qualification but later the names of two others were also added.

However, the president of the CDA contractors association, Mohammad Saleem, told Dawn that one of the four firms was almost non-existent so it was already out of the competition.

“The other two companies that were added later are too much busy in the metro bus project. Therefore, this is more of an eyewash.” He said, adding that only the Lahore-based firm currently without any major project.

Published in Dawn, July 20th, 2014