Govt considers Parjatan\'s plea to raise financial authority

The government is examining a proposal of the Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation (BPC) for relaxing a provision of the public procurement rules to raise its financial authority for direct purchase of raw materials for its hotels, officials said.  
The BPC, in a letter recently to the ministry of civil aviation and tourism (MoCAT), sought raising its financial capacity for direct purchase of raw materials, they added.  
As per Rules No. 81 of the Public Procurement Rules, the BPC could directly purchase raw materials for its hotels with its existing authority of spending money ranging from Tk 25,000 to Tk one million annually.
 "We have discussed the issue of the BPC. A decision will be taken after further discussion in the next meeting," a high official of the MoCAT, working in the tourism desk, told the FE.
Against the backdrop of price hike of essentials over the past few years, the Corporation could not go for direct purchase of raw materials within its allowed financial authority.
The BPC was established under the presidential order No. 143 in 1972.
Since then, its activities have been expanding allowing the Corporation to make profits.  
The BPC runs hotels, motels and restaurants at different places of the country.
Hotel Abakash, a commercially profitable service-oriented organisation of the BPC, supplies delicious dishes to different state programmes and other important events.
But the hotel needs fresh high-quality raw materials for preparing foodstuffs/dishes.
Sometimes, it has to provide extra foodstuffs for meeting the needs of additional guests at the state-level programmes.  
Under such a situation, the BPC, on an emergency basis, raises funds through a committee for purchasing raw materials.       
Bu there is no alternative for the committee to purchase raw materials in cash urgently since it has to prepare and supply special dishes/ menu quickly for state guests, officials pointed out.
The commercial audit committee of the government has raised objections to the emergency purchase of raw materials by the BPC in violation of the public procurement procedures (PPP).
The BPC already sent letters to the commercial audit department against its objections. It cited the reasons for emergency purchase of raw materials for state events.
But objections raised by the commercial audit department are yet to be resolved, according to the MoCAT.
    talhabinhabib@yahoo.com