Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) issued a statement on Friday about a news story that appeared in Dawn on December 8 under the headline of “World Bank cancels $100 million loan”.

SSGC said the World Bank loan amounted to only $40 million for the Natural Gas Efficiency Project (NGEP), which was cancelled in May 2016. The rest of the amount was already cancelled in April 2015. The World Bank loan of $40 million represented only a minor portion of the overall NGEP programme and was aimed at procuring materials and equipment through foreign procurement only.

SSGC’s board of directors and management showed a keen interest in approving the NGEP plan through a World Bank loan, the statement said. One of the reasons for the cancellation of the loan was the World Bank’s stringent procurement requirements, it added. The original plan kept on changing after every visit of the World Bank mission to SSGC. Consequently, the procurement and disbursement plans were affected, it stated.

Despite all efforts by SSGC to procure under the World Bank procurement guidelines, the response against bids was poor due to ambiguity in the guidelines regarding local bidders. SSGC said the cancellation of the World Bank loan will not have any impact on the UFG control programme of the company.

Published in Dawn December 10th, 2016