MULTAN: The Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) has sought record of the payment of Rs16.3 million from the deputy commissioner’s office in connection with investigation into irregularities in award of contract and making payments for having CCTV cameras on rent for the July 25 general election, Dawn has learnt.

The DC office allegedly violated the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules in awarding the contract for the installation of rented CCTV cameras at the sensitive polling stations for monitoring the polling process.

Advocate Allah Dad Joyia sent an application to the ACE director on Oct 23, alleging that Deputy Commissioner Mudassir Riaz Malik withdrew the tender notice published in the newspapers. He stated that the DC, instead of having a corrigendum published, applied the clause of direct contracting, which, sources said, could only be used in case of an emergency.

He stated that 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 proprietary in nature or falls within the definition of intellectual property which is available from a single source.”

He said tender notices were published in two newspapers in the last week of June for the provision of complete solution to 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.

In order to accommodate his favourite contractor, he said, the DC ordered to withdraw the tender notice which was published in two newspapers through another advertisement within a couple of days, announcing that the tender notice had been cancelled.

He said three firms -- Multi Link, Maqsood and Company, and the Pakistan Telecommunication Company -- were invited for direct contracting. He said the city police officer and the divisional intelligence 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’.

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

He said although it was claimed that 2,072 CCTV cameras were installed at the polling stations, the actual number was far less. “At many polling stations the number of installed cameras was less than the ones against which payment was made. Not more than two cameras were installed at few places,” he said.

He said 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 two months earlier.

An official of ACE confirmed that the relevant official of the DC office had been telephonically asked to provide the record. He said the department would seize the record if the DC office failed to provide it.

ACE Director Amjad Shoaib Tareen said the deputy director technical had been assigned to probe the matter.

DC Mudassir Riaz Malik denied allegation of irregularities and said the PPRA rules as well as the government instructions were followed in the award of the contract. He said the procurement was made according to Rule 59 (of PPRA) under urgency clause.

“Any procurement process till award of contract takes at least 30 days and as election date did not permit to go through this process, urgency clause was invoked,” he said.

Published in Dawn, November 30th, 2018