TDAP dubbed 3rd corrupt organisation

Thursday, December 17, 2009
By Jawwad Rizvi

LAHORE: The Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) has been described to be the third most corrupt organisation in the country in a report recently released by the Transparency International.

The TDAP is the custodian of Export Marketing and Development Fund (EMDF) and spends 80 per cent of EMDF budget on holding exhibitions abroad. However, owing to corruption in its rank and file, the fund is mismanaged. Officials at the authority’s headquarters told The News that one of the recent examples of such corruption is the award of stand construction contracts out of merit and in violation of rules and procedures of the TDAP.

According to them, recently retired Director General of TDAP, heading the Marketing Division of Europe and Asia, before his retirement in September 2009, awarded the contracts of stand construction to a Czech and an Italian company for the fairs to be held till the end of 2010, despite vehement opposition by the respective commercial counsellors in European countries, especially in Germany.

The officials sitting in TDAP headquarters Karachi said in one such case the contract was awarded to a Czech company, which was neither the lowest in price nor the best in quality. Similarly, in other cases the contracts were awarded to an Italian contractor despite the concerns highlighted by the trade office regarding the low quality standard of the contractor.

The main reason behind TDAP insistence on hiring the Czech and Italian contractors was the kickbacks received by the desk officer and recently-retired DG. They mentioned that the contracts till the end of 2010 have been apportioned between the Italian and Czech contractors in an indecent haste before the outgoing DG retired in September.

It is pertinent to mention here that the stand builders are hired by the trade offices in the light of rules and procedures laid down by the government in general and TDAP in particular. However, the DG asked the trade offices abroad, not to award the stand construction contracts locally but to invite the quotations and then send them to the TDAP. It is interesting to note that the companies which have been awarded the contracts did not submit quotations to the trade officers but the quotations were directly submitted to the TDAP Karachi in violation of the set procedures.

According to the TDAP officials the main force behind these companies were their agents in Pakistan who greased the palms of the TDAP officers and got the company included, not only in the bidding process but ultimately secured the contract despite the fact that the commercial counsellor had shown his strong reservations.

So, the influence of the agents is strong in TDAP decision making that in one case when the trade officer strongly objected to the award of contract to Allestimenti Firestici, as being substandard, the job has been informally transferred to another company StandArt which is represented by the same agent in Pakistan.

In order to avoid any objections, the TDAP has started mentioning StandArt as sister concern of Allestimenti Firestici, though both the companies have no connection with each other.

The News had tried to contact the TDAP chairman for comments on the matter for two consecutive days but unable to talk to him. Every time, his secretary said the chairman was in a meeting and he would ring this scribe up but till the filling of the report he had not contacted.