LAHORE - Provincial Minister for Housing and Urban Development Malik Asad Khokhar has said that e-tendering portal will be introduced very soon with an aim to eradicate the culture of bribery and corruption.
He was addressing a meeting regarding the setting up of the e-tendering portal in the committee room of the housing department on Friday. Additional Secretary Housing Omar Farooq, Deputy Secretary Mumtaz Ahmed and PITB officials participated in the meeting. Additional Secretary Omar Farooq gave a briefing on e-tendering.
The minister observed that the e-tendering portal was essential for the eradication of bribery and archaic culture of recommendations.
Later, talking to the media, the minister said that technology will help to plug any loophole in the department as every effort was being made to ensure a corruption-free system. He said the online e-tendering portal would be implemented in all subsidiaries including Housing Department, LDA, and WASA. The tendering of projects under the annual development programme would also be linked with this system, he added.
He said that an e-tendering system was very important to ensure transparency. Corrupt in the contracting system should be eliminated from the department, he emphasised. A call centre will also be set up for providing guidance about the e-tendering system.
Malik Asad Khokhar said that a computerized record of any change or amendment in the tender notice would be maintained. The computerized system will provide the security code to the applicant participating in the tender while the computerized system will also mark the firm itself regarding the system tendering. The lowest bidder in the tender will be automatically determined.
The minister said that only enlisted firms in the housing department will be able to participate in the tender. “We are devising a transparent system that will protect the people’s money,” he maintained and directed to complete and implement the e-tendering system this year.
The Additional Secretary said that no official of the department or PITB would be able to see the tendering rates before the tender was opened. An applicant can change the rates up to one minute before the opening of tendering, he concluded.
