Pakistan in process of buying rejected technology from China

ISLAMABAD: A multi-million dollars scam is brewing in the Ministry of Information Technology as it is planning to purchase $150 million Radio Trunking Technology for security purpose from a Chinese firm while a better technology is already being operated in the country, well placed sources disclosed to The News.
 
Moreover the same technology was rejected by Ministry of Interior in 2009 but now the task to purchase GoTa Trunking System from Chinese has been given to MoIT by a top government functionary, the sources added. President Asif Ali Zardari is also likely to sign Memorandum of Understanding with the Chinese firm during his current visit to China, the sources held.
 
The Secretary MoIT, Farooq Awan, when contacted by The News said that the process of purchasing GoTa Trunking System was in a premature stage as in the first stage only a feasibility study will be conducted.
 
Details reveal that Interior Ministry has already launched a multi-million dollars Radio Trunking Project (TETRA) normally known as National Integrated Trunking Radio System (NITRS) for public safety network and the same system was used by China for 2008 Beijing Olympics and is better in quality than the system which the MoIT is looking at to buy, the sources said.
 
The sources mentioned that after a detailed technical analysis in June 2009 it was found that the GoTa System was unsuitable. However the same case has now been again floated through Ministry of Information Technology instead of Ministry of Interior, they held.
 
The sources also disclosed that a high profile meeting was held on April 23, 2012 in Karachi in which it was decided to reinitiate the GoTa Project which had been aborted earlier under pressure of concerns over the lack of transparency in the project approval process. It is likely that the president would sign an MOU for the GoTa Project during his visit to China, the sources say.
 
“There is already a Trunking system (Push to Talk) deployed under the auspices of National Police Bureau across the country, which is TETRA system largely used all over the world. To construct a similar system through GoTa project is a duplicated investment”, sources added.
 
The sources said that a full fledge exercise has been done during the past one year by National Telecom Corporation, a subsidiary of MoIT and the Radio Trunking Project was advertised thrice in a year but no competent bidder qualified. “All of a sudden a Chinese company introduced itself along with its financial bids to the NTC in May 2012 and it has been issued letter of Intent/ Contract for Consultancy Services for ER&SAIS Project”, said the sources.
 
The sources said that the GoTa system would cost $150 million with operational cost of around $80 million annually. The GoTa system is being purchased through Chinese loan, the added.
 
Secretary MoIT, Farooq Awan, while responding to a query sent by this correspondent replied, “Only feasibility study will be conducted and then a decision for further course of action will be taken in accordance with decisions of ECNEC. It is premature at this stage. Feasibility study has not been conducted yet.”

Source: The International News