KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has directed the provincial and local authorities to file details about tendering and nature of work to utilise an amount of Rs3,600 million provided by World Bank for infrastructure development of provincial metropolis.

The single-judge bench headed by Justice Mohammad Shafi Siddiqui warned that if tenders were found to have been issued in violation of procurement rules, an appropriate order may be passed notwithstanding issuance of awards.

It directed the local government secretary, municipal commissioner Karachi Metropolitan Corporation and other defendants to submit reply as to how many tenders out of the fund provided by World Bank had been awarded or were under process and what was the nature of work of such tenders.

“Details of each tender be provided separately disclosing amount for which it was awarded or to be awarded, work assignment and reasons for not implementing the procurement rules such as advertisement for calling and inviting bidder for a transparent competition,” the bench in its orders said.

Bench warns of appropriate order if procurement rules are flouted

The bench also issued notices to all the defendants as well as the advocate general Sindh for Nov 21, on the lawsuit filed by two individuals associated with engineering firms.

The lawyer for plaintiffs argued that the Work Bank’s funds were being consumed and utilised by the provincial government in the manner which was neither transparent nor lawful.

He further submitted that although it might be an argument that the funds had been utilised in relation to urgent necessity for a natural calamity for which normal procedural rules could not be dispensed.

However, the counsel argued that since funds were provided by WB in terms of regulation which asked for its utilisation by the borrowing entity for a transparent mechanism that included the advertisement at least and thus such regulation would not be diluted just because it was an emergent need for a situation which might occur periodically.

The plaintiffs contended in the suit that the essential aspect of the project ‘Competitive and Livable City of Karachi (CLICK)’ was urban infrastructure development of the city to be carried out through KMC and the district municipal corporations while overall allocation was $230 million.

They further asserted that a false project under the name of emergency road repair work had also been conceived by KMC whereby contracts amounting to Rs3,600 million had been awarded directly to the blue-eyed contractors without any advertisement and in violation procurement laws.

Therefore, the plaintiffs argued, they had been deprived of participation in the open bidding process which might have saved public money. They pleaded to declare all the contracts in question illegal.

Published in Dawn, November 20th, 2022