The Cabinet Purchase Committee however declined to provide the EC with the exemption as indiscriminately as it is seeking, although the commission is claiming that it is seeking the exemption to enable itself to finish printing the updated voter list before the election scheduled for next January, sources said.

With the parliamentary election around the corner, the EC has yet to complete the preparation of the voter list and it will take at least two months to finish the task even if it is exempted from the regulation. The EC Secretariat has yet to even start the process of printing the updated voter list, sources said.

The EC, which had wasted at least six months by dilly-dallying to implement the court's orders for updating the existing voter list, requested the Cabinet Purchase Committee on August 22 to exempt it from PPR to complete printing the voter list on time.

In a summary, approved by the EC and sent by its secretariat to the Cabinet Purchase Committee, the commission said activities for preparing a fresh voter list began following a unanimous decision of its members.

"Preparation of the voter list has been delayed because the Election Commission had to take on the task of updating the existing voter list to implement properly the verdict and order of the court after it had already started preparing a fresh voter list following a unanimous decision by the commission. So, if the regulations are to be followed, it will not be possible to complete the tasks of printing the updated voter list and preparing a CD of it before the election," sources quoted from the summary.

In defence of seeking the exemption, the EC also said it is difficult to follow the provision in PPR for allowing 21 days for the vendors to prepare tender documents. Prices quoted in tenders for similar jobs in the same area will also vary if the tenders are to be floated in accordance with PPR, argued the EC.

"So, confusions will prevail in peoples' minds despite following the regulation," the EC said.

Besides, the expenditure will increase compared to the spending during the similar task done in 2000, the commission said adding, "So, the possibility of the Election Commission's image being tarnished remains."

In reply to the EC's request, the Cabinet Purchase Committee on August 30 asked the EC Secretary to discuss the issue with the secretary to the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) under the planning ministry and to place the matter again before the cabinet committee with the opinions of the two secretaries.

"The Election Commission secretary and the IMED secretary will place the issue before the cabinet committee with their opinions in light of Public Procurement Regulations 2003. So that the issue does not require an elaborate discussion when it is placed before the cabinet committee," Finance and Planning Minister M Saifur Rahman opined in the letter sent to the EC Secretary by the Cabinet Division.

Sources at the EC Secretariat said the date for the meeting between the two secretaries has yet to be fixed.

The government introduced PPR 2003 in a bid to ensure transparency and accountability in public procurements.

PPR is applicable to all public procurements by the ministries, divisions, departments, various government agencies under them, local government bodies, public corporations and other public bodies. Any exception to this is allowed when the government deems it needed in the interest of national security or national defence or because of an emergency.

The regulation makes it mandatory to follow the process prescribed in it for awarding any work order involving TK 1 crore or more. The EC Secretariat said it will have to spend more than Tk 15 crore to finish printing the updated voter list and to prepare a database.

IS EC'S DEFENCE LOGICAL?
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) MA Aziz earlier put the blame on the law ministry and on the office of the attorney general for wastage of Tk 43 crore during the preparation of the now defunct fresh voter list as he claimed that he continued the task on consultation with them.

But the draft electoral roll was declared illegal by the Supreme Court as it had been prepared ignoring the January 4 High Court (HC) directives.

The EC's activities so far regarding the preparation of the voter list also do not justify blaming the Supreme Court (SC) for the delay in completing the task.

The CEC ignored the January 4 HC directives for updating the existing voter list and continued preparing the controversial fresh voter list. But the two erstwhile election commissioners, M Munsef Ali and AK Mohammad Ali, were in favour of implementing the HC directives and they urged the CEC to convene an EC meeting.

Amid such a situation the CEC remained absent from the office and compelled the government to appoint two new election commissioners, Justice Mahfuzur Rahman and SM Zakaria, on January 15 to provide him with a majority in the EC.

After the appointments of the two election commissioners, the CEC convened an EC meeting on January 19 and with support of the two newly appointed election commissioners took the decision to file an appeal against the HC directives.

After filing the appeal with the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, the CEC continued preparing the fresh voter list and published a draft of it on May 3. But the Appellate Division on May 23 declared the draft voter list illegal and upheld the HC directives for updating the existing voter list.

The CEC took over one month to start implementing the court's verdict which had directed the EC to update the existing voter list. Finally, the EC started updating the existing voter list by allowing its officials to sit in local election offices from July 1. In the face of severe criticisms, the EC started sending its officials for door to door visits to update the voter list from July 21.

The field level task of updating the list was completed on August 10 and the keeping of the updated list opened for public inspection ended yesterday.