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NGN contract under CIAA scanner
KATHMANDU, AUG 29 -
Nepal Telecom’s (NT) decision to award a next generation network (NGN) contract to two Chinese companies, ZTE Corporation and Huawei, has landed it under the scanner of the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA).
The CIAA has seized all the documents related to the bidding process, and the investigation has been speeded up after it was made a priority under the special direction of CIAA secretary Bhagwati Kafle, said CIAA officials.
“We have been doing our best to reach a quick decision, but it is a very technical and complex issue for us,” said a CIAA official. “Since the case is new and technically tough, the CIAA is mulling hiring experts for further investigation.”
The NT board had decided to award a contract to ZTE and Huawei to work on a package basis to supply equipment to install the NGN in the country in the first week of August. As per the contract, ZTE was assigned to make the NGN service available in the Kathmandu Valley while Huawei would do it in the rest of the country under Package B.
However, following the objection of NT employee unions and suspicion of corruption, the NGN bidding issue had reached the CIAA.
According to the CIAA, NT had granted permission to ZTE which had bid Rs. 90 million more than Huawei to carry out the same project. Huawei had quoted Rs. 1.67 billion (US$ 22.2 million) to work under the package basis and ZTE had bid Rs. 1.76 billion (US$ 23.5 million).
Ten international firms had submitted proposals to supply equipment for the NGN. However, the bids of only four -- ZTE, Huawei, Nokia Siemens and UTSTAR -- had been studied by NT’s evaluation committee. Nokia Siemens and UTSTAR were rejected in the second round of the selection process because of their higher bids.
Earlier, NT board members had said that the contract had been awarded to ZTE to supply equipment worth US$ 10.3 million for Package A and to Huawei to supply equipment worth US$ 8.7 million for the project.
“First, we summoned NT officials to the commission to present the details of the bidding process. As their presentation could not convince us, we have seized all the documents for an investigation,” said CIAA spokesman Ishwori Paudyal. NT managing director Amar Nath Singh had presented the details of the bidding process.
NT has been targeting to introduce cable television and internet via its landline telephone network using NGN technology focusing on rural areas where data service is not available. When asked about the CIAA’s investigation, NT managing director Amar Nath Singh said that the CIAA and the Public Accounts Committee had every right to launch a probe following complaints. “We are hopeful that the issue will be sorted out soon, and we can proceed further to introduce the NGN in country,” he added.
NT had planned to start installation of NGN technology having 666,000 lines (272,000 POTS, 145,000 DSL and 250,000 SIP/VOIP) this year.
The NGN is a network that will replace the current PSTN network around the world used to carry voice, fax and modem signals. It is essentially a managed IP-based (i.e., packet-switched) network that enables a wide variety of services. Among these services are VOIP, video conferencing, instant messaging, e-mail and other kinds of packet-switched communication services.
Posted on: 2010-08-30 08:26
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