A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Tuesday, December 6, 2016
Decision To Award Controversial Tender: “Fair” Play Or “Foul” Play?
By Gamini Jayaweera –December 5, 2016
Recent reports in the national newspapers state that the Ministry of
Sports has recommended to award a Design and Construct contract to
re-lay the 400m and 200m training tracks at the Sugathadasa Stadium
Sports Complex to a tender submitted by a Joint Venture between Access
International (Pvt) Ltd. and Conica-Veritas for the sum Rs. 334,291,610
excluding VAT. Based on the reports published in the newspapers, there
are a few questions that need to be clarified by the Minister of Sports
and the other responsible parties for the interest of the general public
that due process has been followed to award this contract to the most
economically advantageous tender. After all we are dealing with a large
sum of public money and as such the authorities have a public
accountability to demonstrate that no irregularities have taken place in
the process of appointing the successful tenderer.
The reports indicate that this is a Design and Build tender open to a
selected few pre-qualified tenderers. Normally, pre-qualification of
tenderers is required for larger projects such as this to ensure that
most suitable tenderers are selected because the complexity and the high
commercial value involved with the project. Generally, six (6) to eight
(8) tenderers are selected from the pre-qualification process to
proceed to the next level which is the post-qualification tender stage.
So, it is important to find out the criteria that are considered in a
pre-qualification document to select the potential tenderers who would
qualify for competitive tendering.
The pre-qualification process is different from the post-qualification
tendering stage because it does not include price, programme, and
constructability etc. A standard Pre-qualification document should have
covered establishing the tenderers ability to design and construct the
Works based on the professional experience of the Design team,
Construction experience, Organisational capacity, Financial standing,
Health & Safety records, and Reputation etc. Having scrutinized the
above mentioned information in detail, it is generally accepted that
under normal circumstances, any one of the pre-qualified tenderers has
the capacity and the experience to carry out the specified works. It
appears that the pre-qualifying the six (assumed 6) tenderers for this
project the procurement team has followed the due process. So far so
good. Appears to be Fair play.
Following the pre-qualification, the post-qualification tender documents
should have been prepared and issued to the pre-qualified tenderers
based on the Client’s brief which generally includes the Specification,
Safety & Quality requirements, Specified Design and Construction
Periods, the Period required by the client for Acceptance of Design,
Approval process for the Construction, and the total Tender Sum to
complete the Works amongst other things. The tenderers should have been
notified that their tendered sum should be submitted with a priced
Activity Schedule which helps the Authorities to analyse the commercial
elements of the tenders. It also provides the basis for the authorities
to certify the interim payments based on completed activities during the
implementation stage.
But it appears as indicated in the press reports, a Clause has been
included in the post-qualification tender document to disqualify the
pre-qualified tenderers based on their ability to carry out the works.
According to the newspaper reports, the Clause 3.5 states “Synthetic
Track Manufacturer / Installer with experience in installing minimum of
Ten (10) IAAF Class 1 tracks including at least one (1) in South Asia
and minimum of Ten (10) IAAF Class II Synthetic athletics tracks
including at least five (5) in south Asia.” This Clause should not have
been included as part of the Specification in the post-qualification
tender document because it is a prequalification Clause that should have
been used to select the tenderers rather than for specifying the works
that are required to be carried out. It is unfair and unreasonable to
introduce such a Clause in the post-qualification tender document as the
selected tenderers have already gone through the pre-qualification
process. If the authorities wanted to disqualify the tenderers who do
not fulfil the requirements of the Clause 3.5 they should have included
such a Clause in the pre-qualification document to exclude the unwanted
tenderers tendering for the project. The newspaper reports indicate that
based on this Clause 3.5, five (5) tenderers have been disqualified. If
these reports are true it is unfair and unreasonable to disqualify
these tenderers on the basis of the Clause 3.5.