SL courts automation tender embroiled in controversy
Startling revelations have emerged on alleged procedural irregularities in awarding the Justice Ministry tender for the design, supply, implementation and maintenance of a ‘Court Automation System’ in Sri Lanka.
This project envisages automating the Court hearing process and related activities with key modules of e-filing, case management and transcription along with other related sub-modules, officials said, and documents showed.
Having recognised the significance of digitising the judicial sector for national development, the Government has allocated a sum of Rs. 5 billion to the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) for the whole project.
The first phase (award of contract) of the project is expected to be completed by end 2021 as it has to utilise the budgetary allocation of Rs. 500 million before the end of the financial year, by making the 10 per cent advance payment to the selected bidder, according to the documents.
It was planned to roll out to initially 100 Courts in the island including Supreme Court, Appeal Court, Commercial High Courts, Juvenile Courts and Magistrates Courts.
This tender was conducted in two stages, Pre-Qualification stage and Detail Bidding stage.
The MOJ had published a newspaper advertisement on April 11, 2021 under the heading ‘Invitation for Pre-Qualification (PQ) of Information Systems’.
Prequalification applications were to submit online (email submissions) and guidelines were issued on June 1, 2021 to all applicants highlighting that any submission made after the deadline, or a submission made within the deadline with missing and/or incomplete documents/attachments will be rejected.
Prequalification document clearly mentioned (clause 2.5 in page 7) that applicants of ‘only Sri Lankan firms’ are allowed to submit the applications for the tender with special emphasis for development of solution from scratch.
This was with the objective of keeping in line with the President’s manifesto of encouraging local software talent which is of international standard, the MOJ said. Later it was hurriedly amended allowing foreign companies to participate as joint venture partners with Sri Lankan companies, local bidders alleged.
The experience criteria given in the PQ document categorically mentioned that the experience in Information System Design as Prime Contractor, JV member or Sub Contractor for last 5 years is essential.
Another eligibility was the successful completion of a minimum number of three ICT Projects each valued at Rs. 100 million within the last five years.
The original closing date of May 10, 2021 was postponed to May 25 and again to June 3, 2021 while the closing time was fixed at 3 pm at the request of the bidders, the ministry said.
Thirteen companies submitted PQ applications before the deadline (3 pm on June 3). One applicant, a joint venture of two local firms and a foreign company, submitted their PQ application a few minutes after the deadline.
The Ministry has accepted this application violating the government procurement guidelines as well as their own guidelines issued on June 1, disgruntled bidders complained.
Later, out of the 14 PQ applications received by MOJ, seven companies pre-qualified including the late submission had been accepted.
Responding to this complaint, the Ministry stated that the applicant in question whose submission was received between 3.05 pm – 3.33 pm was accepted as they reported a technical issue on email submission at 2.56 pm.
They also made an appeal together with the network router logs subsequently. Having verified the technical issue with a technical expert team of the ICTA the application had been accepted, the ministry clarified.
In order to maintain the openness and transparency of the process, a detailed response submission report with actual receipt times was sent to all applicants, upon conclusion of accepting the pre-qualification responses, it added.
The late bidder had submitted their pre-qualification bid through a private gmail account despite guidelines clearly stating that submissions should be on a company email, bidders said.
It was questioned by others that if this particular company cannot submit an offer on time, how would they perform such a large complex software implementation which requires vigilant compliance to timelines.
At the submission of bids, it was observed by the bid opening committee that the bid submitted by the joint venture of two local firms and a foreign company did not include the legal document authorising the signature to the bid.
The Bid Evaluation Committee (BEC) has concluded their task by giving marks only for two contenders – including the joint venture projects – with over 80 per cent marks and knocked out the other five bidders.
According to disgruntled bidders, the bidding document has been prepared to keep the competition out and only to bring in two main contenders.
All other bidders have expressed their concerns over the procurement process especially the rapid bid evaluation carried out by the BEC which comprised two non-government officials deviating from the public procurement process. The BEC Chairman was appointed from a private university and a Technical Evaluation member was a President’s Counsel not a government employee, they complained.
In a lengthy clarification, the ministry issued a statement under the signature of Ministry Secretary M.M.P.K. Mayadunne which said the tender procedure had been carried out in a transparent manner adhering to public procurement guidelines without any irregularities.
Only two bidders were able to achieve the pass marks to be qualified for the technical evaluation, the ministry said.
Several rejected bidders told the Business Times that they will submit an appeal to the ‘Presidential Appeal Board’ to call for fresh bids cancelling the awarding of present tender while seeking the intervention of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to rectify the issue.
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