LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) has directed the director general of the Punjab Procurement Authority (PPRA) to decide the grievance of a bidder company regarding alleged pre-fixation of a tender and exclusion of China from the country of manufacturer in a bid floated by the Punjab Agriculture, Food and Drug Authority (PAFDA).

PAFDA advertised the tender in national newspapers on June 13, 2024, initially scheduled to be opened in the presence of bidders on Oct 22, 2024.

However, one of the bidding firms submitted a formal grievance to PAFDA, accusing it of designing technical specifications to benefit a particular bidder. The firm highlighted that the specifications unfairly restricted competition, violating the principles of fair play and observation of the PPRA rules.

Despite the grievance filed by the firm regarding specifications of the lab equipment purchase, the authority failed to address the issue of specification and pre-fixation, leading to a writ petition before the high court.

Authority was accused of favouritism for excluding China-made products

The firm, through its counsel, pleaded before the court that a discriminatory attitude had been adopted by the respondents by setting specifications/qualifications for the tender, ignoring the due process.

Besides other discriminations, counsel Maqbool Hussain Sheikh pointed out that excluding China from the countries of manufacturer even for ordinary items of equipments deprived the state value for money as most of the companies were getting their products manufactured in China but had their incorporations in Europe and US wherefrom they were selling the products but at a high price.

The lawyer stated that China also attained high class status in most complex and sophisticated products. He said when China-made equipment/product would be excluded from a tender, Pakistan, a relatively poor country, would suffer an immense financial loss because of such limitation. He argued that the respondents also unlawfully asked the bidders to extend the validity period of their bid without giving due time. He asked the court to set aside the tender for being issued in an unlawful manner and with discriminatory specifications.

Justice Raheel Kamran disposed of the petition and referred the matter to the DG PPRA with a direction to decide the grievance of the petitioner-firm Roys & Roys International in accordance with law within one month.

Published in Dawn, December 15th, 2024