Govt to follow 'quotation system' for emergency food import

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A high-powered decision-making body Thursday advised the relevant agency to follow the 'quotation system' under the existing Public Procurement Regulations (PPR) for emergency food import within 10 days.

"Instead of inviting tender the food ministry can import food grains on an emergency basis through following the quotation system under the PPR," finance adviser Mirza Azizul Islam informed the newsmen after a meeting of the cabinet committee on economic affairs.

The quotation system under the clause 85 of the PPR 2008 allows the food ministry to procure food grains just within 10 days, the meeting, which was held at the Secretariat with the finance adviser in the chair, observed.

The observation came after the food ministry placed a proposal before the advisory committee on economic affairs for reducing the time for tendering the import of food grains to 15 days from the normal time limit of 42 days and that of tendering to 10 days from 28 days, sources said.

However, the meeting decided to review the proposals on resumption of operation of three state-owned enterprises (SoEs) namely Chittagong Chemical Mills Ltd, Khulna Newsprint Paper Mills and North Bengal Paper Mills Ltd.

After delisting the three laid-off vital industrial units from the Privatisation Commission, the industries ministry placed the proposals on resumption of operation before the committee on economic affairs for approval.

Earlier, the government had included the loss-making SoEs in the disinvestment list and handed over those to the Privatisation Commission for transferring to private hands.

The meeting also decided to provide the Chittagong Dry Dock Ltd 75 per cent of the repairing cost of bailey bridges taking the company's liquidity crisis into consideration.