MULTAN: The deputy commissioner’s office allegedly violated the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules in awarding Rs16.3 million contract for the installation of rented CCTV cameras at the sensitive polling stations in the district for monitoring polling process in the July 25 general election, Dawn has learnt.

The officer posted as deputy commissioner at the time of election denies having committed any violation of PPRA rules.

According to sources, the deputy commissioner allegedly withdrew the tender notice published in the newspapers and canceled it. The DC, instead of getting published corrigendum, applied the clause of direct contracting, which the sources said could only be used in case of an emergency.

As per PPRA rule No 12 (2), “any procurement exceeding two million rupees shall be advertised on the website of the Authority, the website of the procuring agency, if any, and in at least two national daily newspapers of wide circulation, one in English and one in Urdu; however the requirement of advertisement, may be dispensed with after prior approval of the Authority in the cases: (a) the proposed procurement pertains to national security and its publication may jeopardise or compromise the objectives of national security; and (b) the publication of advertisement or notice of the proposed procurement involves disclosure of information which is a proprietary in nature or falls within the definition of intellectual property which is available from a single source.”

In the last week of June, tender notices were published in two newspapers for provision of complete solution of rental internet protocol cameras for surveillance, along with installation of the cameras at 450 polling stations in the district. It was mentioned in the notice that six CCTV cameras would be installed at each polling station.

Sources said that the DC Mudassir Riaz Malik, who took the charge of the post on June 21, allegedly expressed his displeasure over issuance of the advertisements in the newspapers and ordered withdrawal of the tender notice. Another advertisement was published on behalf of the DC within a couple of days, announcing that the tender notice had been canceled.

They said that three firms -- Multi Link, Maqsood and Company and Pakistan Telecommunication Company -- were invited for direct contracting.

The sources added that both the city police officer and the district inelegance committee objected to installation of the CCTV cameras at so many (450) polling stations and instead suggested that the devices be installed at just 259 polling stations falling under ‘A category’.

The sources said that later the DC office asked the contractor to increase the number of the CCTV cameras at each polling station from six to eight. They said that no other districts of the province had sought such a large number of the CCTV cameras for the polling stations.

They said that although it was being claimed that total 2,072 CCTV cameras of 4 megapixel were installed at the polling stations, the actual number was far less. They added that eight cameras were installed only at those polling stations where the visit of high officials was expected, while at many places not more than four cameras were installed.

They said that the procurement agency could go for direct contracting in case of an emergency, but the general election was a planned affair and not an emergency and the date had been announced some two months earlier.

The sources said that the district administration could even buy all the required equipment for permanent use with the huge amount it paid to the contractor, instead of hiring it.

DC Mudassir Riaz Malik said that though he was posted in Multan just about a month ahead of the general election, he ensured that all the arrangements for the exercise were made on time.

Denying the allegations, he insisted that the PPRA rules as well as the government instructions were followed in the award of the contract.

“The procurement was made according to Rule 59 (of PPRA) under urgency clause as there was no time available for procurement. Any procurement process till award of contract takes at least 30 days and as election date did not permit to go through this process, we invoked urgency clause. There were also government directions to invoke such clause. Because of security concerns and directions of election commission for CCTV cameras installation, no risk could be taken because it was a highly sensitive matte,” he added.

Published in Dawn, October 1st, 2018