HEC initiates procurement process for PM’s laptops scheme

Islamabad: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) had initiated the procurement process for the Prime Minister’s Laptops Scheme (Phase-II).
To settle the observations raised by the Transparency International Pakistan on the procurement process, a high-level joint meeting of Project Steering Committee and Technical Committee was held at the HEC Secretariat on Monday.
The HEC says that most of the observations raised by Transparency International Pakistan had already been addressed earlier. Representatives from National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Public Procurement Regulator Authority (PPRA) and Transparency International Pakistan (TIP) were also requested to attend the meeting.
The meeting was chaired by HEC Chairman Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed. The chief coordinator and the coordinator for fee reimbursement and provision of laptops also attended the meeting. Members and representatives of both steering and technical committees from Finance Division (Budget Wing), Planning Commission, Higher Education Department, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Education Department, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Ministry of IT, Punjab Information Technology Board, Department of Information, Science and Technology, Sindh, along with the adviser of the Transparency International Pakistan were also present in the meeting.
Country Manager Intel Pakistan Naveed Siraj was requested to attend the meeting. He, along with the representative of Enterprise Lead, Salman Ehsan, was also present in the meeting.The committee was apprised on the progress of the project and also discussed all observations raised by the Transparency International Pakistan point-wise and deliberated to reach to a conclusion favouring the scheme and in the best interest of the country. Different options were discussed and all observations were addressed. The Higher Education Commission now plans to proceed with the execution of project as discussed and finalised during the meeting.