A tender for a mega township development has come under scrutiny with one of the parties alleging that the tender evaluation was unfair.
The company that has raised questions concerning the evaluation process is Nippon Koi which along with another company called Oriental Consultants, were both short-listed for the tender.
The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) which is funding the project has not raised any objections to the tender being awarded to Oriental Consultants although their concurrence was given two weeks back after a review of the bid documents in JICA's Manila office. Industry sources said it is unusual for JICA to ask for bid documents and that this request was most likely prompted by the issues raised by Nippon Koi. The sources added that by calling for the bid documents and by subjecting them to a comprehensive review, the findings of the tender board were found to be correct by JICA.
The tender board was expected to meet last week to ratify the decision to award the tender to Oriental Consultants after which the financial proposals will immediately be called for. Oriental Consultants will have two weeks to submit its financial proposals, the sources said. The JICA office in Colombo was contacted but the officer in charge declined to comment.
Issues raised by Nippon Koi
According to documents seen by this newspaper, Nippon Koi received zero points for two components in the evaluation for which they had submitted documents. Nippon Koi said they should have got a minimum of 0.01 points just for submitting the paperwork and are calling for a re-evaluation. According to the evaluation, Nippon Koi received 84.76 points while Oriental Consultants received 92.69 points.
Nippon Koi received a zero rating for its proposal on a subsection on Approach and Methodology but the company says it provided a 7-page write up. Nippon Koi also received a zero for a section titled Head Office Support (Qualification of Support Staff) whereas they say the CV's of two staff members have been submitted.
The multimillion dollar 3-K Township Project is aimed at linking Kottawa, Kaduwala and Kadawatha which are three main ink cities for the future Outer Ring Highway Project which the Ministry of Urban Development & Sacred Area Development is planning on implementing. JICA is providing the funding for the tender which involves the construction of the trunk roads and town planning.
Responding to questions on the fairness of the tender evaluation process, the Project Director Nishad Dissanayake told The Sunday Times FT that appointing the tender is the decision of the government of Sri Lanka and that there has been nothing inappropriate concerning the evaluation process.
The Cabinet Appointed Consultancy Procurement Committee (CACPC) has made its recommendation and the report has been submitted to the JICA for its concurrence after which financial proposals will be called. In the event that the financial proposal from the company that has been recommended in the report is not satisfactory and is not up to the UDA's expectations, they will go to the next company.
Ultimately, the decision on who is awarded the tender rests with the government but Mr. Dissanayake said the final decision is far from being over. He said there were four companies that were short-listed for the tender but only two parties responded. The tender worth 330 million yen is for the construction of some minor trunk roads as well as town planning. |
E-mail