LAHORE: The Punjab Mass Transit Authority (PMTA) which is headed by Chief Minister Usman Buzdar is learnt to have cancelled the multi-billion rupees O&M (Operation and Management) contract of the Orange Line Metro Train after reportedly finding irregularities in it.

According to sources inside the Chief Minister House on Saturday, the Rs60 billion contract awarded to a Chinese company for running and managing the train for around 10 years was cancelled on various legal and technical grounds given by different departments and agencies concerned.

The contract was reportedly designed by former PMTA managing director Sibtain Fazle Haleem whose own term in office expired six months ago. He was nevertheless given an extension in his contractual service mainly on directions by the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

Insiders claimed that the RFP (Request for Proposals or in plain terms Terms and Conditions) of the bid were publicised without seeking approval of the competent authority. The approval was sought after selecting the contracting party, they alleged.

They claimed that the legality and financial aspects of the bid were got checked by the authority from different departments and agencies. The Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (Ppra) had rejected the bid last week, while the Punjab advocate general also did the same. A committee under planning & development chairman too pointed out some issues in the bidding process, they said.

The insiders said the authority under the chief minister, nevertheless, rejected the bid on various grounds. One of them was that the contract required to have five-year duration but was given for 10 years, while Its operational cost was also high despite the fact that everything of the train project was owned by the provincial government. “Even the train is owned by Punjab,” an official said.

The authority which has been reconstituted recently comprises provincial transport minister, two MNAs, four MPAs, secretaries of the finance and transport departments, P&D chairman and a former transport secretary.

They said the authority was going to place an advertisement in newspapers soon to select a suitable candidate for the post of its managing director in place of Mr Haleem, a retired bureaucrat. At present, the post is lying vacant and the additional charge is with the transport secretary.

Published in Dawn, June 23rd, 2019