A spokesman for Energy Department has said that solar home systems for Ujala Programme have been procured after a transparent, open and competitive bidding process. The spokesman made it clear that the news item regarding the alleged loss of sixty crore rupees in the purchase of solar system is based upon assumptions and costing of locally fabricated product which obviously does not conform to the prototype. He said that all the activities in the procurement process were placed on the official website of the Energy Department for transparency and dissemination besides all the procedural formalities were fulfilled in the procurement process including submission of contract agreement to NAB. He further said that eminent experts from academia and professionals well-versed in solar technology had finalized the specifications of the solar home systems keeping in view the requirement and the local conditions. He said that 65 companies participated in the expression of interest while 15 were eligible to participate in the procurement. The successful bidder won the bid on the basis of competitive price and prototype which fully conformed to the specifications.
The spokesman further said that the Chief Minister Punjab had constituted a broad-based procurement board headed by Chairman Planning & Development Board with representation among others of Finance and Energy departments to ensure transparency and open competition in the process. The board monitored the procurement and ensured that it is in accordance with the Punjab Public Procurement Rules. The spokesman said that none of the competing firms offered the US$ 90 (Rs.9000 approximately) price that is mentioned in the news report. To ensure quality of the product, the successful bidders were asked to conform to ISO certification requirement which have been doubly checked by renowned international pre-shipment inspection company. The product is also guaranteed for two years and the successful bidder is bound to provide after sales service during this period for which ten percent of the bid money is retained with the government as security. He said that the successful bidder after considering the fairness in the competition offered ten thousand additional units of solar home systems to help augment the efforts of the Punjab government in order to mitigate the effect of prolonged loadshedding especially for students. He said that prototype of Dawood Lawrencepur Ltd., was not in conformity with the approved specifications and therefore rejected. The firm filed an appeal before the Grievances Redressal Committee which was later on withdrawn by the bidder before the date of hearing.