Sindh ministers reject corruption allegations in procurement of school furniture

• Saeed Ghani, Sardar Ali Shah reject corruption allegations in procurement of dual desks. 
• Central Procurement Committee undertook process to buy public schools' furniture in Sindh, says Ghani. 
• Transparency International Pakistan had complained to CM Sindh about the Sindh Education Department buying desks at 320% higher rates. 

KARACHI: A central procurement committee undertook the process to buy public schools' furniture in Sindh in an "independent and autonomous manner" without any interference, said Sindh Information Minister Saeed Ghani Wednesday.

The former education minister was joined by the incumbent education minister of the province, Syed Sardar Ali Shah, as the two held a news conference to reject corruption allegations levelled at them by the PTI.

A report carried by The News a couple of days ago said the Transparency International Pakistan had approached Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah with the complaint that the education department was allegedly purchasing dual desks for public schools at a 320% higher rate.

Both ministers, Ghani and Shah, asked the PTI's Haleem Adil Sheikh to provide proof to back his corruption claims.

They said that the Central Procurement Committee formed for the purpose had taken into confidence the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), TIP, the Sindh High Court (SHC) and the Anti-Corruption Establishment at every stage of the purchasing procedure while asking these authorities to nominate a representative to become part of the process.

The ministers said that a sum of Rs3.6 billion was spent to purchase furniture for the government-run schools in Sindh. Ghani said that a sum of Rs1 billion as part of the procurement deal would be paid by the selected bidder as government taxes and transportation charges for the deal.

He said that it was completely unjust on the part of some Sindhi-language TV news channels to assume that the latest procurement deal was meant to embezzle Rs3bn from the provincial exchequer.

The former education minister said that furniture for the government-run schools had not been purchased for the past eight years, so in the year 2018, it had been decided to constitute a central procurement committee for the purpose that would do its work with absolute independence and autonomy, with eminent persons from the province appointed as its members.

Ghani said that the committee’s head was an eminent educationist and IBA University Sukkur Vice-Chancellor Nisar Siddiqui, with the members including former Sindh governor Lt Gen (retd) Moinuddin Haider, Transparency International Executive Director Saad Rashid and other officials, in accordance with the policy of the Sindh Public Procurement Regulatory Authority.

The procurement committee in question rescinded the first tender of the procurement deal due to a lower bid than the cost of the consignment and furniture of a lesser quality to be supplied to fulfil the deal, he added.

The minister said that tenders had been floated once again in 2019, with the bids at that time ranging between Rs21,000 and Rs29,000, but later on a person moved the SHC and secured a stay order against the prospective procurement deal.

He said that the stay order was later on vacated by the court in 2020, but that tender was again cancelled due to less time available to complete the contract by Mir Muhammad Shah, who later became the IBA University Sukkur VC and head of the procurement committee after Siddiqui’s death.

Ghani added that the committee once again floated the tender for the deal in January 2021, while all the details of the deal were sent to the NAB Sindh director general a day before the finalisation of the contract, with the request to complete the investigation into every step of the process.

The minister said that NAB Sindh replied to the request on July 7, 2021 that it could not become part of the procurement deal, as later on it could take action if it received any complaint regarding the deal.

Ghani said that they had done their best to make sure that the entire procurement deal remained fully transparent and corruption-free, adding that later on the process had begun to purchase the school furniture.

Originally published in The News