| Many raised their eyebrows over the recent government decision to award a Dutch firm a Tk 80 crore (11.77 million US dollars) contract for conducting a seismic survey in the Bay of Bengal to gather data for marking out its maritime boundaries with India and Myanmar. They have expressed their surprise as experts feel that awarding such work without tender is a clear violation of the existing public procurement rules.
The cabinet committee on economic affairs on August 20 awarded the contract to the Dutch firm at a cost of Tk 800 million ($11.77 million).
In its proposal to the cabinet committee, the foreign ministry admitted that the contract should be awarded in line with the Public Procurement Act (PPA) 2008.
But it said that there were some strategic complications and problems in following the PPA as it would require a longer time.
Arguing in favour of the move to avoid open tenders, the ministry said that firms from the countries with which Bangladesh has disputes over the maritime boundary, might turn out to be the lowest bidders if the open tender process were followed.
About the process of awarding the contract, the foreign ministry said that it requested some countries including the USA, Canada, Japan, Norway, the Netherlands, Germany and France to provide technical assistance under the government-to-government cooperation.
According to the foreign ministry, among these seven countries, only the Netherlands expressed its interest to provide cooperation in this regard and a Dutch company assured of conducting the required survey.
According to the proposal, the ministry would collect quotations from some internationally reputed companies and then would negotiate with the Dutch company over the amount to be paid for the work.
But experts have said that the above process is in violation of the PPA as it is neither following the open tender nor the limited tender. Outsourcing the work from one country also raised questions whether reputable companies from other countries were contacted by the ministry as the proposal said that quotations from some internationally reputable companies would be sought.
Asked whether awarding such contracts without any kind of tender was lawful, former adviser to the caretaker government Dr Akbar Ali Khan said told The Independent recently if the company was awarded the contract without any kind of tender, it would be unlawful.
"One cannot ensure providing the suitable firm through open tender such a technical work, but there should be a limited tender for this. And the concerned authorities should pick someone from the selected firms short-listed through the limited tenders," he said.
Dr Khan, who was also cabinet secretary to the government, said that for accomplishing such works there must be more than one firm in the world.
That is why awarding a single firm without approaching others would be unlawful, he added.
"Sometimes there might be exceptions. For example, when one wants to procure machinery to replace those in a big plant - the machinery being manufactured by a certain company, he might find that the machinery made by the other company would not fit into that plant. In such cases, there are provisions for avoiding tenders," he explained.
He noted that for ensuring good governance corruption and irregularities in public procurement should be resisted.
'And without political will no country can eliminate corruption,' he said.
Talking to The Independent over the issue, TIB chairman and former adviser to the caretaker government M Hafizuddin Khan said that definitely awarding contract without tender for such a survey would be illegal.
"There must be a number of firms who have the expertise in conducting such survey. So there should be a pre-qualification tender for picking up the suitable one," he explained.
He reminded that even the defence purchase was conducted through tender process except a state-to-state deal.
He said that the existing public procurement act has the provisions for awarding contract for such specialised works.
On the issue of awarding a law firm for representing Bangladesh's case in the international court over the maritime boundary, he said that the same process should also be maintained there.
As there are a number of firms in the world who are expert on the law of the sea, there should have to be a pre-qualification process to short-list the suitable firms before awarding contract, he added. ; |