ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) recently cancelled the bidding process to hire a firm to conduct the Medical and Dental Colleges Admission Test (MDCAT).
PMC took this move amid criticism by stakeholders as they filed a case in Lahore High Court (LHC) that a "tailor-made" tender had been floated to hire the same company which conducted MDCAT as a joint venture 2021.
After that, (PMC) told the LHC that it cancelled the fresh tender issued for the procurement of computer-based examination services to conduct the Medical and Dental Colleges Admissions Test (MDCAT).
PMC lawyer said the commission cancelled the complete process for the tender, and the company, namely SOAR Testing and Evaluation Platform (SMC-PVT) Limited (TEPS), had been asked to withdraw its bid security.
It may be noted that PMC had signed a 10-year joint venture with SOAR-TEPS, under which each student appearing in MDCAT would be charged Rs6,000 out of which Rs3,500 would go to the company and the remaining Rs2,500 to PMC.
The firm conducted the MDCAT tests at over twenty centres across the country and at 5 locations abroad in September last year, in which around 200,000 students took part. The tests continued for one month.
Later, a new tender was floated, calling on companies to file technical and financial proposal bids by Dec 9, 2021, and stating that the company would get a 100 per cent share of the fee. However, Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) and other stakeholders termed the new tender a "tailor-made" as only the same company would be able to meet the requirements and conditions.
In order to qualify, the bidders must achieve a minimum of 70 per cent score in technical evaluation and marks below 50pc in any of the six categories will disqualify the bidder.
Because of the tender, some of the stakeholders again moved to LHC, alleging that the "tailor-made" tender was floated to award the contract to the same company.
