LAHORE, April 1: The All Pakistan Contractors Association (Apca) on Tuesday took exception to what it described as the Water and Power Development Authority’s preference for foreign firms at the cost of local ones.

In a press release, the association claimed that Wapda had recently invited tenders for 11 hydropower projects under the Vision 2025 programme. The total value of these projects was around Rs47 billion. The local industry had the capability and expertise to execute the projects, but only one of those was awarded to a Pakistani company, Apca said.

The association claimed that four projects were being awarded to a Chinese company despite opposition of the Central Contract Cell of Wapda. Other development organizations in the country normally discourage award of more than one contract to a single company at a time, it said.

It also resented the role of the Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) in “awarding only 30 per cent of civil works to local firms”. Recently, foreign firms hired local associates having no background in the field concerned, only to get contracts, it added.

In projects funded by a particular company, there could be some justification for reducing the local share. But this was hardly comprehensible in case of locally funded projects. If the project was too large for a single local firm, a joint venture could have been attempted as was the case in M-1 and M-3 (motorway) projects, Apca said.