Law: Punjab Procurement Rules, 2009

Section: 9

Law: Constitution of Pakistan, 1973

Section: 199

Punjab Procurement Rules, 2009--- ----R. 9---Constitution of Pakistan, Art. 199---Limitation on splitting or regrouping of proposed procurement---Scope---Public procurement---Under Rule 9 of the Punjab Procurement Rules, 2009 the splitting of works contract ought not to be done after the stage of shortlisting the contractors; otherwise such splitting could be used to exclude competition by eligible contractors of a lower category by awarding the contract to a favored higher category public contractor---Higher category contractor had higher overheads and was therefore likely to demand a higher price and such caution should be exercised to ensure transparent utilization of public money on public contracts in accordance with the law---Regulatory mechanism established in the Punjab Procurement Rules, 2009 was meant to advance the object of the Rules, and the Standard Operating Procedures and primarily ensure utilization of public funds in a transparent, fair and reasonable manner that promoted public interest---Punjab Procurement Rules, 2009 must be complied strictly by authorities responsible for utilizing public funds, otherwise their actions were invalid and ineffective. ORDER UMAR ATA BANDIAL, C J.---The petitioner is a civil contractor. He has a Category C-I licence valid until 30-6-2011 for executing projects up to the value of Rs.500/- million. He was excluded in shortlisting process for execution of the Urban Water Supply Scheme, Toba Tek Singh originally planned to cost of Rs.815.984 million. This was due to the lower categorization of his licence. Subsequently, however the said project was bifurcated on 1-2-2011 into two projects valuing Rs.393.315 million and 366.818 million. This was done pursuant to a permission letter issued by the Chief Engineer South, Public Heath Engineering Department ("CE South") dated 8-1-2011 ("impugned letter"). This permission is statedly compliant with Rule 9 of Punjab Procurement Regulatory Authority Rules 2009 ("Rules"). Fresh tenders were not issued and competition was confined to the contractors of higher category that had been short listed earlier. As a result the petitioner although eligible was excluded. Hence, this…

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