HYDERABAD: The Hyderabad circuit bench of the Sindh High Court has directed that bids for contracts for 103 development schemes launched under the Mirpurkhas package be opened in the presence of all bidders to maintain transparency in the bidding process under procurement rules.

A division bench comprising Justices Salahuddin Panhwar and Mohammad Iqbal Kalhoro appointed on Thursday the court`s deputy registrar to supervise the entire tendering and bidding process of the schemes after a petition filed by Nadir Khan Pathan, a registered contractor, raised serious questions over the process.

He was represented by Advocate Nadir Hussain Junejo.

The petitioner has cited the chief secretary, secretary for works & services, secretary of Knance,director of the Sindh Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (SPPRA), chief engineer of highways and executive engineer and superintending engineer of works & services department as respondents.

The petitioner said that the respondent executive engineer (XEN) issued a notice inviting tender (NIT) on Nov 18, 2014, for road schemes under the Rs350 to Rs400 million Mirpurkhas package for repair and maintenance of roads in the district.

Even a casual perusal of the NIT showed that many roads mentioned in it had either already been constructed or repaired twice or thrice and that many such roads led to landed properties of influential persons, he said.

He said that he tried to get a tender form to submit it with a security deposit of Rs80,000 but when he went to the XEN`s office he noticed there was no box for tenderforms in the office.

He learnt from his sources that the contracts had already been given to favourites or fake contractors in return for bribery or on the basis of political influence and the notice had been issued only to fulfil formalities.

He said that tenders were not opened on Dec 16, the appointed day for their opening and later the date was rescheduled to Jan 5. It had been done only to keep genuine contractors away from participating in the bidding and make changes during this period in the favourites` tender forms to show them as the lowest and successful bidders, he said.

He had come to know that the respondent officers would also get contracts under fictitious names, he claimed.

Mr Khan said that it was talk of the town that 10 per cent commission was charged on each contract and 19 per cent commission waspaid to the XEN at the time of payment to contractors.

He said that fake contractors and favourites were released payments in advance which could be easily verified. These contractors were using substandard material and such contracts were awarded by the XEN without announcement in newspapers under SPPRA rules, he said.

He said that after extension in the last date to Jan 5 the entire exercise of contracts had become a complete sham as contracts would be won by influential men alone and people like the petitioner would be deprived of their right to have a level playing field.

The petitioner requested the court to direct the respondents to act in accordance with the SPPRA rules and open bids for contracts in the presence of a judicial magistrate.

After hearing the petitioner`s counsel the court observed that aperusalofrecordhadrevealedthat a huge amount was involved in the 103 schemes. In order to ensure transparency in the process and make sure that every participant received a tender from, the tenders be opened in the presence of all participants as per relevant rules, said the court.

The court directed its deputy registrar to supervise the process of issuance of tender forms, acceptance and opening of bids as per procurement rules and said the court officer would be at liberty to issue any direction to the officials concerned toensure transparency.

Since the matter pertained to national exchequer, it could not be left entirely to the discretion of the respondents to award contracts to people of their choice, particularly after serious questions had been raised in the petition, said the court, advising the respondents to cooperate with the deputy registrarin execution ofcourt orders.