PPRA refuses to endorse PCCA request
By Mehtab Haider
ISLAMABAD: The Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) has refused to endorse the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCCA) request of exclusivity for negotiated tendering with a single party of the UK for holding examinations of Pakistani pilots and recommended to engage in open competitive tendering process.
According to the findings of PPRA, PCCA in its letter dated April 14, 2021 has sought advice of the PPRA regarding negotiated tendering with a single party i.e. UK Civil Aviation Authority-International (UK CAA) keeping in view the provisions Rule 42(d) (i) & (i) that allow such negotiated tendering on the following basis:
Technical or artistic reasons or the reasons connected with protection of exclusive rights or intellectual property, and for reasons of extreme urgency (due to unforeseeable events not attributable to the Procuring Agency).
Brief of the information provided by the PCAA has communicated that serious anomalies were observed in the examination system of pilots in July, 2020 as reported in the high-level inquiry;
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and European Commission have imposed Significant Safety Concerns (SCCs) regarding PCAA Examination System, and the same concerns would only be removed after the validation audit of Corrective Action Plan (CAP). They have evaluated the proposal of UK CAAi in the light of Rule 42(d)(i) and (Gii), considering technical reasons, exclusive rights and extreme urgency, and the same proposal was approved (in principle) by the CAA Board in March 26, 2021, and PCAA desires to sign a contract with the UK CAAi for conduct of examination, as per the recurrent fee ( of £ 90) quoted by the UK CAAi in addition to Onetime Examination Fee (£ 69,600).
Keeping in view the Para-7 of the PCAA letter (read with the subject of the same letter), this contract seems to be a Framework Agreement. The PPRA took the stance that the case was evaluated by the PPRA on the basis of limited information (comprising of two-page letter without any supporting documents).
According to the regulatory position of PPRA, the Procuring Agency may engage in negotiated tendering due to technical or artistic reasons in the following scenario: There should be such technical solution that is non-obvious for others, and hence not available anywhere, otherwise there could be no reason to avoid the competitive process (Exclusive Rights are granted for such Patentable inventions, having novel and unique technical solution(s) for industrial applications. For any examination system for the pilots, there are many ICAO compliant organizations (in the world) which can be engaged through competitive tendering process. Also, since, high-level inquiry has highlighted the serious anomalies in the PCAA examination system, so, if someone considers it as an unforeseeable event, it would be considered as attributable to the PCAA (as a procuring agency) due to the PCAA examination system not meeting the international standards. On the other hand, if this fact is ignored, even then PCAA had sufficient time after publishing the Inquiry Report or the issuance of the advice of the ICAO, for engagement in the competitive tendering process.
Moreover, the provisions of extreme urgencies (if meet all the requirements) can only be invoked for short term basis rather than engaging in the long term (Framework) Agreements, for which there is separate provision in Rule 16-A titled as "Procurement of common use items, services and commodities through framework agreements" .
It is recommended to the PCCA that it should engage in open competitive tendering process for selection of ICAO Compliant Organization for conduct of examinations of the pilots, and signing any framework agreement if necessary.
It was also suggested that some alternate mechanism may also explore till such time PCAA enters into contract (or framework agreement) with the ICAO Compliant Organization(s) subsequent to open competitive tendering process, it may require the candidates to pass the examination (at their own) from any of the ICAO Compliant Organizations, and hence, PCAA may consider recognition of those examination systems as accredited examination systems, subject to approval of the competent forum of the PCAA.
The official sources said that the PCCA did not seek a waiver, so the PPRA has not opted to table it before its board.