Fraud in Sri Lanka’s tourism tenders

Following the detection of a fraud, the Tourism Ministry said on Thursday that it was compelled to withdraw the contract of two crucial tenders for the promotion of tourism and the immediately transfer some officers of the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau.

The ministry release stated that in calling for bids for the Creative Agency there were two bids obtained. One of them was selected and informed duly on March 28, 2023.

There were two bids for the Public Relation tender and one was selected, the release said.

There were three bids made for the Digital Agency tender. In the first round one organisation withdrew from the tender while the other two bids were taken up by the Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC) and forwarded to the Ministerial Procurement Agency for selection, it was stated.

Following the questioning by two officers on the TEC regarding the legal concerns on one of the tenders it was then forwarded to the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau’s Legal Branch. It was then noted that there were some legal concerns in one of the tenders, it was stated.

At the same time, the release said the Tourism Ministry Secretary who had been informed of some fraud in the tender called for an investigation for which a committee was established on July 10.

In view of ensuring independence of the investigation committee the relevant officers were transferred temporarily to the Tourism Ministry. And as a result of this investigation the Letter of Award that was to be submitted to the selected Public Relation Agency was withdrawn.

Moreover, due to the opening of the bid without approval by the Ministry Secretary being established as a cause for concern by the investigating committee this led to the Digital Media Advertising procurement to be halted as well, the statement said. (SD)