LAHORE: The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP), in its report “Opinion on Competition Concerns in Public Procurement of Electrical Power Equipment,” has pointed out that there were certain restrictions for new entrants in power sector procurements which needed to be avoided.
The CCP report said that public procurement constitutes 15 to 25 per cent of gross domestic product, or approximately $38 to $63 billion.
The procuring agencies, mainly power distribution companies (Discos) and National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC) insert certain conditions that preclude competition at the bidding stage. This needs to be pre-empted, otherwise, the commission would move according to the law concerned.
The recommendations have been formulated to serve as a guideline for the procurement agencies while designing the tender documents to ensure that no clauses therein restrict or impede competition. The CCP has sent the opinion to all the stakeholders including the Ministry of Water and Power, Wapda, NTDC, DISCOs, Ministry of Finance, Public Procurement Regulatory Authority, business undertakings, and international financial institutions for information and necessary action.
Reference to specific brands, restrictions regarding the country of origin, domestic price preference, biased development of specifications and experience clauses were some of the barriers, the report mentioned.
Apart from the above-mentioned areas, requirement to submit type-test reports, arrangements in lots (lumping), provision of insufficient delivery time and lack of information for participation in the bidding process also inhibit competition in the sector.
