ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has allegedly been focusing on quotations to award contracts of repair and maintenance work in Parliament Lodges. In the ongoing fiscal year, the engineering wing got majority of work done on the basis of quotations in Parliament Lodges.

A CDA official said quotation is supposed for minor works (on urgent and emergency basis) to avoid lengthy process of contract awarding but carrying out majority of work through quotations raised a question mark.

The sources said the CDA should have called tenders for open competitions but in Parliament Lodges it seems almost the entire focus was on quotations.

They said two major tenders from August to January this year were advertised only to be cancelled later. Howover some contracts collectively worth around Rs6 million were carried out through tenders this financial year.

“In the past too, there was a practice of quotation work but this time massive work was done through quotations,” an official said.

When the matter was brought into the notice of the CDA chairman on Thursday, he asked the concerned wing to check and report back.

The chairman said urgent work could be carried out through quotations but there was no room for hundreds of quotations as being claimed by some employees.

The chairman was quoted as saying that if any abnormal work through quotation was done, action will be taken. CDA Chairman Amer Ali Ahmed, sources said, a few months ago had ordered an inquiry to probe all contracts that took place during the financial year 2018-20 and directed that the inquiry should be completed at the earliest.

The sources said due to pressure from parliamentarians, the CDA gets minor work done immediately through quotations.

“Yes, in case of an emergency we do work on quotation basis but this is not true that from March 2020 to Jan 2021, we have spent Rs200 millions on quotations and revised the work,” an officer of the engineering wing said.

When contacted, Member Engineering Ayaz Khan said some of the works were done through quotations to complete them on priority.

However, he also denied that all works in Parliament House were carried out through quotations.

Published in Dawn, January 22nd, 2021