LAHORE, Pakistan: Secretary Planning & Development Punjab Iftikhar Ali Sahoo Wednesday said that Punjab Government had fully committed to bring competency and technical expertise of private consultants.
He said under the vision of Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif the government was moving towards engaging academia, civil society organizations, companies and consultants to improve the quality of services provided by the government through modern techniques.
He expressed his views while addressing the seminar titled “Pre-qualification for consulting firms under the concept of capacity building of government departments”, organized by P&D held in the Auditorium of P&D Complex here.
Iftikhar Sahoo said that government department’s capacity to conceive high quality projects needs to be upgraded for which the demand of consultants is undeniable. He added that Punjab Government mandate was much beyond the pre-qualification and it was to develop consultancy sector and this exercise held today was part of that drive as per the Chief Minister’s vision.
He added that Punjab Government was going to initiate mega projects in the province during the fiscal year 2016-17 by involving and ensuring partnership of national and international consultancy firms and companies.
Director General (M&E), P&D welcomed all the representatives of Consulting Firms to attend the Pre-qualification seminar that will help in understanding amendment in PPRA Rules 2014 and subsequent pre-qualification for the financial year 2016-17. He through brief presentation, iterated that contractors and consultants were development partners while P&DD approved development projects of Rs. 400 billion plus for the current year.
He added that because of resource constraints the GoPb was moving towards Private Public Partnership (PPP) mode to address acute public issues without worrying much about monetary obligations.
Addressing the seminar, Dr. Shabana Haider Member Health, P&D Board said that instead of adopting stereotype skills and techniques, the consultants might also uplift their quality on grounds of current scientific practices.
In the seminar, Representatives of more than 20 reputed national and international firms have asked questions which were satisfactorily answered by the Director General (M&E). He explained that this was an introductory Seminar and detail coordination would remain intact through pre-bid meetings and electronic/telephonic communication.
Source: APP
