05-16-2009, 06:23 PM
An old Article but highlights the grief that the Land of the Pure suffers from their Highel and Tallel than the Himalayas Deepel than the Pacific and Lalgel than the Univelse Fliendsâ Fliendship :
<b>NA body opposes Chinese locomotives purchase</b>
Wednesday, May 06, 2009 : Mayed Ali and Moayyed Jafri
LAHORE : The National Assembly Standing Committee (NASC) on Railways has directed the Ministry of Railways not to procure Chinese locomotives, worth Rs 12.7 billion, till the Ministry of Law and Justice assesses the controversial deal.
The committee found irregularities and violations in the bidding and tendering of Rs 12.7 billion procurement of Chinese locomotives and referred them to the Ministry of Law and Justice on April 23. The Railways Ministry went ahead with the deal despite the fact that former chairman Pakistan Railways Ejaz Ahmad advised the institution not to âstandardiseâ the locomotives until their performance had been evaluated for at least a decade. The Railways signed the agreement with the Chinese authorities on December 31, 2008.
During a meeting, NASC Chairman Sardar Ayaz Sadiq issued clear-cut directives to the PR chairman for proceeding under the Removal from Service Ordinance (RSO) against the officers who were involved in the violation of (Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules, Tender/ Technical deviations within 30 days. These officers have been found guilty of forging documents, committing fraud to mislead the ministry and changing specifications laid out by Ecnec. The NASC chairman clearly advised that âno further progress on this contract be made until the opinion of the Ministry of Law and Justice is received and discussed with the NASC.â
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The PR in its January 2005 performance report had declared 69 Chinese locomotives acquired in September 2003 as technically misfit and substandard. A total of 334 total failures in the Chinese locomotives were reported in a short span of 16 months from September 2003 to January 2005, the report stated. These defects included severe failures of assemblies and above all, the defect of main frame cracking was detected in these locomotives.</b> The Chinese locomotives require inherent modifications to function in the PR infrastructure as it does not comply with the technical requirements, including axle loads and required turbo chargers. However, the PR has reported that even after the modification, majority of these locomotives continue to malfunction. Experts have termed these discrepancies a major contributor to the derailment of railway bogies and said these locomotives were accident-prone. <b>It was also reported that maintenance cost of the Chinese locomotives was already too high and would rise even further after the warranty period expires.</b>
The American engines previously used by the PR have twice the life of the Chinese locomotives although they cost almost twice as much. But over the service period of the Chinese locomotives, almost a significant half has stayed dysfunctional at the workshops for one reason or the other and only half the strength has effectively been in service, causing severe distortion of the PR operations. The firms competing for the tender included the Marubeni Corporation (Japan), General Electrics (USA) and DEC (China). A renowned international firm, General Motors, refused to take part in the bidding, clearly objecting to the tendering process adopted by the Railways Ministry. This allegation stands justified as the Railways Ministry mentioned in the tender notice that it reserves the right to reject any or all the tenders without assigning any reason and the decision of the ministry shall not be challenged on any grounds whatsoever by the bidders.
The tender released by the Railways Ministry violated Rule 33 and 48(5) of the PPR, which states that any bidder dissatisfied with the decision of the procuring agency may lodge an appeal with the relevant court. During the course of standing committee meeting, the railways authorities confessed these omissions by the procuring agency. The tender was to be finalised within 240 days, as stipulated in the PPRA rules. Nevertheless, the Railways Ministry officials finalised it after 320 days. Moreover, the tendering was done against the recommendations and criteria specified by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec). Under the Public Procurement Rules (PPR), 2004, these violations and breach can lead to mis-procurement and those responsible shall be held accountable under the law. The PC (I) for the procurement of 75 locomotives included technical specifications recommended by Ecnec, chaired by the prime minister, and no one has the authority to change the Ecnec decision, including axle load values not feasible for the infrastructure. The tender documents prepared by the PR had altered the specifications, which were a major violation, as seen by the standing committee.
The locomotives offered by the Chinese bidder did not meet the technical specifications of the desired A-I-A bogies. Instead, they were altered and fabricated to meet the desired criteria, which allowed the acceptance of Co-Co bogies, violating the PPR 36(b), which forbids any change in technical proposal. All these technical discrepancies in the Chinese locomotives offer have made them a technically non-responsive bidder and according to the PPR, the financial envelope of such a bidder is not opened.
However, in clear violation of the PPR 36(b)(viii), the financial proposal was considered and qualified despite that the technical evaluation declared the Chinese offer as unsuitable for 3,000 HP locomotives.
In another finding of the NASC, the tender notice did not mention any benchmark of experience for the desired firms, creating ambiguity while evaluating different bidders. The Chinese company failed to provide the desired authenticated performance certificates to prove financial capability, past performance, delivery period availability of the spare parts and maintenance/service facilities. The company does not even qualify the basic criterion, which demands export of at least 150 locomotives of each type. In another effort to favour the Chinese bidder, the PR in the NASC meeting on February 9, 2009, mentioned that the certificates of reputation and end-user authentication were not available. <b>The copies of such certificates were later presented by the PR to the NASC, which were declared as tampered. These certificates from Nigeria and Iraq are in Chinese manuscript, which cannot be the case, as the languages of these countries are different. These certificates were found to be provided by an agent of the Chinese company in these countries and, thus, do not hold any ground.</b>
These decisions was taken at the meeting of the NASC on April 23, 2009, which assessed the findings of the Review Committee, formed to ensure that none of the tenders or technical conditions were violated and the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules and guidelines were adopted properly on the procurement of 75 locomotives from China. This review committee was formed in a meeting of the NASC on March 27, 2009, headed by PPRA MD Sarfraz Ahmed Syed, Maintenance & Service General Manager Asad Saeed, W&T GM Farooq Aziz, a representative for the Ministry of Finance and two members of the standing committee, after huge deviations in the contract were reported along with several defects in the procured Chinese locomotives like cracks in the main frame, being overweight, and unfeasible life-cycle costs.
Ex-PR chairman Ejaz Ahmed termed it interference in the executive matters of the ministry. Railways Minister Ghulam Ahmed Bilour said the NASC might forward its recommendations to the minister to be careful in future rather than opening the Pandoraâs box. The NASC chairman said it was the prime responsibility of the committee to point out irregularities and float its recommendations for the betterment of the ministry. Commenting on the findings and recommendations of the NASC, Bilour said he did not oppose them.
Cheers <!--emo&:beer--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' /><!--endemo-->