The committee sought clarification on the issue from Shreedhar Gautam, secretary at the Ministry of Information and Communications (MoIC) and Amar Nath Singh, managing director of NT. [break]
Members of the committee have instructed officials of MoIC and NT to forward all the related documents of the process to the committee within three days.
The PAC initiated the investigation as per the complaint filed by China based Yunnan J/V with LS Solar. In the complaint, the Chinese firm argued that it was not awarded the tender even though it quoted Rs 340,000 less than the winning bidder Beijing Ecom. Beijing Ecom had quoted Rs 40.68 million.
NT had called a global tender for procurement, supply, delivery and installation of solar power system in September.
Three Chinese firms had participated in the bidding.
In the meeting, NT officials argued that the tender was awarded on the basis of quality and not in terms of bid amount. We awarded the contract as per the provision of Procurement Act, NT´s deputy managing director Rameshwar Karmacharya said.
Singh complained that government procedure was creating difficulties for the state-owned telecom operator to compete with private players.
NT had invited tender for solar panels to put in place power backup system during load-shedding and to provide telecommunication service in some rural and Tarai districts that do not have regular electricity supply.
Lawmakers also questioned the motive behind awarding tender to the company having just 10 years of experience. NT had sought bids only from the firms having at least 15 years of experience.
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