ISLAMABAD: Instead of procuring their own machinery, the city managers are all set to issue work orders for rented machinery against a whopping cost of almost Rs500 million for six months.

“Yes, after competitive process, in which two companies participated, we had received the lowest bid which was a little over Rs1 billion for hiring machinery for one year. The lowest bid was 17pc above the Notice Inviting Tender (NIT) cost (Rs870 million),” said Capital Development Authority (CDA) spokesperson Syed Asif Raza.

Director General Civic Management Shahjahan said the new contract would be for six months, adding that CDA Chairman retired Capt Mohammad Usman had approved the file for a six-month period. He said soon work orders for six months would be issued.

“We have called tender for one year, but we got approval of the chairman for six months,” he said.

Officials claim funds were sufficient to procure own equipment; spokesperson says efforts underway to finalise PC-I to purchase machinery

CDA officials Dawn spoke to said Mr Usman had nothing to do with the procurement of machinery, adding that the bidding process took place before the new chairman’s joining.

It is relevant to note here that during the last two years, the CDA had announced that instead of hiring private machinery, it would procure its own machinery which would be an asset for the civic agency.

Subsequently, in September last year, CDA’s Development Working Party (DWP) also took up the agenda for approval of PC-I worth Rs689 million for the project titled ‘Procurement of Machinery to Upgrade Sanitation Services in Islamabad’.

But, the civic agency, which had surplus budget in its kitty, surprisingly failed to procure its own machinery. This negligence of CDA raises several questions as many officials believe that the fund, which CDA will spend on paying for rented machinery to some extent, could be sufficient to procure its own machinery.

“We received bid of Rs1 billion for one year for rented machinery. I guess, this amount would have been sufficient to purchase brand new machinery,” an official said.

However, CDA’s spokesperson said efforts were underway to finalise PC-I for procurement of machinery.

He said the said contract for hiring machinery was held in a transparent manner and this time round, the CDA had extended its operations to rural areas as well.

When asked about the high bid price as compared to last year’s bid (which was Rs510 million for one year) he said massive increase in diesel and petrol prices were the main reasons behind the increase in bid rate, adding that according to the tender, the contractor would ply 72 units (small and big vehicles) for the cleanliness operation.

In the past, the CDA used to hire services of private sanitation workers, however, this time round, the civic agency had its own staff as recently it completed the process of hiring over 900 workers.

Despite repeated attempts, the CDA chairman could not be approached for his comments.

Published in Dawn, September 1st, 2022