The plan to revive the dilapidated Parsi Lying-In Hospital has run into a disagreement — among the trustees of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet. While BPP chairman Yazdi Desai has alleged that the bidding process has been compromised, other trustees stated that no rules have been broken.
Article by Arita Sarkar | Mid Day
The Bombay Parsi Panchayat chairman has alleged that sharing of one bid among all trustees has given undue advantage to other bidders
Around three to four companies had expressed interest in the project of reconstructing the defunct Parsi Lying-In Hospital in Fort last month. Desai alleged that one of the companies had submitted their offer to deputy CEO Shehnaz Khambatta who had then forwarded it to all the trustees without waiting for submission from other bidders.
Earlier this month, Desai wrote to all trustees stating that the process had been compromised and withdrew from the transaction. “Sharing the details of one bidder provides an unfair advantage to the other bidders who can submit a better proposal. Instead of sending one proposal, all of them should have been sent at the same time. It should be a transparent and secretive bidding process,” he said.
Other trustees, however, stated that there was no breach in the protocol for the process of finalising the contender for the project. Kersi Randeria, a trustee, said that the process is still in its initial stages and the document shared by the company just outlines their proposal and not financial bids. “It is just a term sheet. We are yet to ascertain what the final project will be and for that, we have to discuss the offers made by various companies. We never decided that all submissions would be opened at once. The submission has only been shared with the trustees. How does that compromise anything?” he said.
Randeria added that various aspects like revenue share, reservation for the Parsi community, office space for the BPP will have to be figured out before financial bids can be placed. Another trustee, Noshir Dadrawala said, “One bid was sent electronically in a PDF file which was shared with all the trustees. What do you do when you receive the bid on an email? There was no seal on it. She did the right thing by sending it to all the trustees,” he said, adding that equal opportunities will be given to good contenders.
