Staff Reporter
In complete violation of procurement rules, the Bangladesh Railway [BR] is going to finalize the purchase of 70 locomotives at a cost of Tk 2000 crore.
But the project officials, however, denied the allegation of not following public procurement rule [PPR] in the case of tender invitation.
To mitigate the crisis of rail engines, BR took project to buy 70 meter gause locomotives in 2011 under tender’s financing. The authority had invited tender three times as it did not get suitable bidder for long four years for imposing tough conditions, insiders say.
It is not the end. At the last tender invitation on April 9 in 2015, the railway authority scheduled the opening day for the bidders on May 31st 2015, which was Sunday.
But as per the rule, the tender inviter office must be kept open on the day before the tender opening day. That means, the office should be kept open on Saturday i.e. the government holiday for receiving tender on Sunday.
There is widespread allegation that the invitation of tender on Sunday was the completely violation of government PPR of clause 94, sub-clause 7.
When asked, Project Director Dulal Kumar Roy told the Daily New Nation last night that purchasing process of 70 meter gause locomotives was going on for many days.
“But it took time for not getting suitable bidder. We are trying to finalize the issue from last bidders. And so, the last tender invitation date and time was extended. There is no violation of PPR,” the project director said.
Planning commission sources said, the purchase cost of 70 locomotives is Tk 1, 945 crore and 89 lakh.
