ISLAMABAD - OGDCL, in a bid to allot multi-billion project, Dakhni Development Project, to its favourite companies, disqualified five out of seven bidders, TheNation has reliably learnt. Information gathered from reliable sources shows that a tender was called in August last year for hiring the services of (PCC) Contractor for procurement, construction, installation/erection, pre-commissioning, start-up and commissioning assistance for Dakhni Expansion Project. Seven companies participated in the tender where the parties first had to undergo technical evaluation before opening their priced bids. One of 5 disqualified companies, Shahzad International representing M/s Specialty Process Equipment Corporation wrote a protest letter on January 7 to the Acting MD of OGDCL against the unfair evaluation of the proposal submitted by the Principal and highlighted that the one-sided evaluation was such as no single clarification was sought by OGDCL from their Principal before rejecting the bid demanding advise the concerned to do the evaluation as per the tender documents, sources said. A source in the OGDCL has shared with this correspondent how the entire evaluation was allegedly maneuvered by MD OGDCL to ensure the eventual success of particular companies. Meanwhile, MD OGDCL Zahid Hussain has gone on seven-week medical leave under controversial circumstances. The evaluation of this contract was given to M/S ENAR Petrotech Service Pvt Ltd, a Karachi-based company owned by Ministry of Production & Industries. It merits mentioning here that the said consultant has been exposed for alleged involvement in a major scandal with OGDCL in which almost Rs1 billion are being siphoned off with ENAR, a party in the scandal. OGDCL and ENAR, under the scandalous arrangements have been assigned the task to bypass the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) Rules. Minister for Petroleum & Natural Resources has also blamed the OGDCL in the past for being involved in violation of rules and regulations regarding the procurement of materials and went on saying the issue in this regard needs to be addressed. However, TheNation has learnt that no action, whatsoever, has been taken by the minister despite such claims. A senior OGDCL official told this correspondent on anonymity, ENAR has been involved in evaluation of bids for various tenders on OGDCLs behalf and usually, rates the bidder in tune with whatever the sitting OGDCL MD tells them. They just offer a good shoulder to fire from and every MD has used them for this purpose. The official further confided that on Dakhni Project, ENAR has only short-listed two companies. One is Siemens Pakistan and the other is Descon and both have arrangements in OGDCL and have close terms with present governments office holders. Syed Zahid Hussain, MD OGDCL has been and still is on the Board of Directors of Siemens Pakistan. According to OGDCL employees, he has always shown his preference to award OGDCL work to Siemens. Siemens did a terrible job in Qadirpur which was even rejected by OGDCL employees, an OGDCL technical person who worked at Qadirpur Field told this correspondent. The other short-listed company Presson Descon is owned by Razzaq Dawood, a former minister in Musharraf government. The said company, the sources said, was also facing allegations of involvement in $150 million scam, involving OGDCL with it. Syed Kazim Raza Naqvi, an Islamabad-based lawyer had written a letter to the NAB Chairman on December 3, 2007 in which he provided information regarding contract irregularities of $150 million in Manzalai Gas Field Project funded primarily by OGDCL, PPL and Government Holding, and awarded by MOL on single commercial bid opening.