NEECA violated PPRA rules in hiring consultant for CPPs audit

Islamabad-The National Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (NEECA) efforts to hire consultant for the energy audit of gas-based captive power plants (CPPs) may face a legal battle as it has allegedly violated PPRA (Public Procurement Regulatory Authority) rules. The advertisement for the hiring of consultant for the energy audit of gas-based captive power plants (CPPs) violated the PPRA rules, it is learnt here through a reliable authority.

 One advertisement was published on August 15, 2020 and the corrigendum of that advertisement was published on August 18, 2020 but both do not meet the PPRA requirement of timeline. According to rule 31.1 of Public Procurement Rules 2004 “The procuring agency may decide the response time for receipt of bids or proposals (including proposals for pre-qualification) from the date of publication of an advertisement or notice, keeping in view the individual procurements complexity, availability and urgency. However, under no circumstances the response time shall be less than fifteen days for national competitive bidding and thirty days for international competitive bidding from the date of publication of advertisement or notice. All advertisements or notices shall expressly mention the response time allowed for that particular procurement along with the information for collection of bid documents which shall be issued till a given date, allowing sufficient time to complete and submit the bid by the closing date.”

The source said that, enough time was not provided to consultant firms to respond to the advertisement. An affectee had already served legal notice to NEECA in this regard, the source informed. The legal notice said that “an advertisement, Guidelines For submission of EOI Clause No.2, only 10 days were given to submit the proposal. You may kindly note that PPRA Rule 13-1 requires 15 days minimum for a fair competition. However, NEECA raised a corrigendum of 5 days, which does not suffice for 15 days, you are kindly requested to re-advertise for fair competition and writ of law.”

In case, no heed was paid to the notice, than the party may likely to take it to the court and will get stay order. As per the details, following the CCOE directives, the National Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (NEECA) had initiated a process for the energy audit of gas-based captive power plants (CPPs) through independent consulting firms and had published advertisement in various media outlets.

The scribe has contacted NEECA Managing Director Dr Sardar Mohazzam for his comments on the matter and was asked that, NEECA had advertised for the hiring of consultant for Captive power plants but initially it gave only 10 days time. Don’t you think it was a violation of PPRA rules? The MD replied through Whatsapp, “Please check the website for details. The Corrigendum was published too”.

Article source: https://nation.com.pk/19-Oct-2020/neeca-violated-ppra-rules-in-hiring-consultant-for-cpps-audit