Irregularities in Bidding Process: Purchase body cancels 2 proposals

The Cabinet Committee on Government Purchase (CCGP) has cancelled two proposals -- buying curtains for residential buildings at Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant site and tablet computers for a census project -- due to anomalies.

The committee took the decisions yesterday at a meeting with Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal in the chair.

At a virtual media briefing after the meeting, Kamal said both the authorities concerned have been asked to submit the tender again.

The public works department submitted a proposal for the committee's approval for buying and supplying curtains for 196 units in two buildings of Green City Residential Complex at the cost of Tk 4,67,59,545.

At the briefing, Md Shamsul Arefin, additional secretary of the cabinet division said some anomalies were found, which is why the department concerned was asked to float tender once again.

Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), under the statistics and information management division, proposed buying 3.95 lakh tablets, at the cost of Tk 548.73 crore, for collecting information under a census and housing project between October 25 and 31. The BBS selected the second lowest bidder -- Fair Electronics Limited -- among other applicants, sources said.

The lowest bid was around Tk 402 crore by Walton, they added.

Yesterday, six proposals, including these two, were produced for approval before the CCGP and two other proposals before the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA).

The CCEA agreed in principle to cancel the implementation of the Matarbari-Banshkhali-Madunaghat 400kv Transmission Line project.

Finance Minister Kamal said, "The project will not be implemented under the Public Private Partnership [PPP] method as there is no need for that at the moment."

Shamsul Arefin said that the project could not be implemented within the stipulated timeframe under the PPP method.

"But it will be possible to provide electricity there through another transmission line."

The project was supposed to ensure power evacuation for the SS Power Ltd I Power Plant at Banshkhali in Chattogram.

However, the CCEA approved another proposal in principle to procure some 40,000 solar home systems with the capacity of 100-watt peak and some 2,500 solar community system with the capacity of 320-watt peak from a local experienced firm under the Direct Procurement Method for three districts in the Chattogram Hill Tracts.

"If these solar home systems are set up there, then we believe it will be possible to ensure power coverage even in remote areas of the CHT," he added.