NPA denies blacklisting 4 MoI contracted companies

KABUL (Pajhwok): The National Procurement Authority (NPA) on Wednesday rejecting blacklisting four companies contracted to the Ministry of Interior (MoI), saying the companies were not on its blacklist.

A day earlier, some MoI officials said that four companies contracted to the ministry had been blacklisted and barred from bidding on its behalf.

A source who wished to go unnamed told Pajhwok Afghan News that the blacklisted companies include Shuja Abdara, owned by Haji Rasa, Iqra, co-owned by Haji Bahauddin, Yaran by Mohammd Shafiq, and Mubarak Mumtaz, which belongs to Haji Bari.

The source said that they were major companies monopolising MoI’s allowance-related contracts for many years. But they would be no longer in the bidding process.

However, the official did not provide information which organisation had blacklisted the companies.

Nasrat Rahimi, MoI spokesman, neither denied nor confirmed the matter. However, promised sharing information on the issue later on.

Also yesterday, Rahimi claimed the ministry had saved around three billion afghanis only in logistics and procurement areas over the last eight months.

He said fighting corruption and safeguarding rights of police officials was MoI’s priorities.

Meanwhile, an MoI official, who wished to go unnamed, told Pajhwok Afghan News that the four companies were blacklisted by the ministry and would be no longer able to participate in bidding processes of the ministry.

However, Ahmad Ramin Ayaz, strategic relations in charge at NPA, said that the four mentioned companies were not on their blacklist.

He said it was not MoI’s job to blacklist companies but it was the responsibility of a committee of NPA. He said they did not receive request or complaint for blacklisting these companies.

On the other hand, Haji Bari, head of Mubarak Mumtaz company, said, “We have committed no wrongdoing based on which our company should be blacklisted, we are unaware about this issue.”

He said the company always performed its activities in coordination with the MoI and did not commit any violations.

“I told MoI eight months ago that we would no longer sign contracts with you and you should find other bidders, but they did not find any bidders so far,” he said.

On the other hand, Shahabuddin, head of Iqra Company, also said that he was unaware that his company’s blacklisting. He said they had committed no violations that could lead to their company’s blacklisting. “I contacted the MoI and NPA, they said they did not know about the issue,” he said.

On May 29, MoI said Haji Rasa, along with 20 other individuals, had been detained for allegedly embezzling 600 million afghanis in meat supplies to the ministry.

But the Attorney General Office (AGO) announced the release of Haji Rasa on bail on June 23.

mds/ma