ISLAMABAD Interior Ministry has violated Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules while purchasing scanners containing non-intrusive vehicle X-ray Inspection System (NVIS) from China without inviting tenders for open bidding in the deal amounting to Rs1 billion. It transpired during conversation between the representatives of National Police Bureau (NPB) and PPRA at the meeting of the sub-committee of Senates Standing Committee on Interior. The sub-committee was also informed that the deal would be scrapped for importing NVIS scanners if the Prime Minister did not give approval for the purchase despite the fact that out of the total four scanners that were to be installed in Islamabad, two of those had already been installed at the entry points in the city. The Project Director (PD), NPB who gave a presentation on the NVIS scanners informed the sub-committee that the purchase was done in a transparent manner. He informed that NUCTECH, a state owned company of China was the sole manufacturers of NVIS and bidding was not necessary from the sole manufacturers. He while supporting his point quoted Rule 5 of PPRA, 2004 and said that when an agreement was signed between the two governments, the invitation of tenders was not necessary. China offered a tied loan facility for the procurement of scanners and other options for similar loan facility were not available at that time, he added. However, the representative of PPRA refuted his point saying that PPRA Rule 5 of 2004 applied on treaties as well as agreements not on MoUs adding that it did not apply on the purchase of these scanners as the deal was done through an MoU. Inspector General of Police (IGP), Islamabad, Kalim Imam also showed his reservations over the 1 billion deal saying that the scanners were only manufactured for the cargo to dedifferentiate the organic and inorganic material and had no ability to detect explosive materials. The Sub-Committee also showed its dissatisfaction over the presentation of NPB on NVIS. The Sub-Committee observed that the scanners four in number would not cover the whole entry as well as entry points of the capital as the city had 161 such points. It also grilled the Ministry of Interior as well as NPB over deal saying that 4 scanners through I billion loan were purchased at 2 per cent mark up rate for the period of 20 years despite the fact that foreign countries were providing loans at 0.5 percent interest rate or even zero per cent mark up. The issues like the stalled recruitment process of Capita Police, the scam of fake arms licences, the blockades of roads in the capital, 200 million of tax evasion scam in Duty Free Shop at Sialkot, Rs 2.06 billion of corruption scandal of a custom officer namely Bawan Shah and the scam of tax evasion in the name of transportation of goods for ISAF in Afghanistan also came under discussion in the meeting.