- Rob Nicholls, Martin Sims and Dennis Ward – three consultants hired for procuring 3G auction in Pakistan – have finally written to media to explain their position on recent media reports concerning their appointment
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- BECAUSE THESE TWO MEMBERS DISAPPROVED THE INFORMATION MEMORENDUM FOR 3G, THE ENTIRE PROCESS OF LAUNCHING 3G AUCTION IS HALTED. THEY BELIEVE THE HIRING WAS NOT DONE USING PROPER WAY IN ACCORDANCE WITH POLICIES. AND LAW.
- TO AVOID THIS, THE POSSIBLE SOLUTION SEEMED TO BE THE HIRING OF NEW CONSULTATNS ALL AGAIN ALONG WITH REVISING THE INFORMATION MEMORENDUM .
- Information Memorandum for 3G was first floated by PTA on January 23rd, 2012. Dr. Muhammad Yasin, then Chairman PTA had supervised the whole process and aimed for auction of 3G licenses on March 29th, 2012.
- Soon opposition parties jumped in to criticize the 3G auction, questioning the base price and chances of corruption. Not to mention, these politicians knew nothing about 3G.
- In May 2012, we were told that PTA will revise the IM and whole process will be started over. In August, the ad for hiring of consultant was published again by MoIT, in response to which three consultant firms applied but all of them were disqualified on various grounds.
- Then without publishing any ad in print, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority advertised the job on its website for individual consultants, in place of consultant firms. This ad on PTA website surprisingly attracted 51 applications, 27 out of which were qualified for the final short-listing and eventually three consultants were announced to be hired for 3G auction.
- didn’t consult member finance and member tech. Who are now seemingly annoyed with that and argue that this hiring was against rules and they can’t approve the IM that was prepared by consultants who were hired illegally.
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- Consultants say that PTA didn’t confirm the cancelation of their contracts until January 14: two weeks later.