Sierra challenges Sugathadasa track Tender award
Claims evaluation process was manipulated by TEC and CAPC
Sierra Construction Ltd, a joint venture with Polythan Asia, has challenged the Cabinet Appointed Procurement Committee’s (CAPC) decision to award a tender to re- lay the synthetic tracks at the Sugathadasa Stadium to a joint ve n t u re betwe e n A c c e s s International ( Pvt) Ltd and Conica-Veritas.
The tender was given despite substantial pressure from other bidders to review the process which, they argued, was fixed from the start. The contract was awarded at Rs. 269,339,325 ( without VAT) but Sierra argued that the entire evaluation process was manipulated by Technical Evaluation Committee ( TEC) and CAPC.
The price quoted by the success- ful bidder is much less than the engineers’ estimate of Rs. 461,459,407.50 million with VAT.
An appeal was placed before the Procurement Appeal Board ( PAB) on Thursday requesting it to cancel the tender and award it to Sierra instead, claiming the winning bidder did not meet the technical specifications in the bidding document. Sierra also charged that the TEC members did not have the expertise to handle the subject.
“The CAPC decided to award this tender to the substantially evaluated responsive bidder, the Access International ( Pvt) Ltd joint venture with ConicaVeritas,” a letter sent to Sierra by K P Siribaddana, Additional Secretary (Admin and Procurement) Ministry of Sports, said. It cites reasons for disqualification.
The letter states that Sierra was disqualified on technical grounds as its partner had not submitted a power of attorney. It also says the Sierra- Polythan Asia joint venture agreement was not signed by an attorney- at- law as required by the bidding document.
Owing to stringent conditions, only three parties-- Access International, CML- MTD and Sierra Construction-- submitted bids for the project. CML- MTD was rejected for not meeting the requirement that the manufacturer must have prior experience in installing at least five Pull FUR Class I tracks.
CML- MTD did not appeal the decision, citing that it would only further delay the re- laying of the track and cause inconvenience to athletes. “We did not want to appeal this time as it will further delay the relaying of the track,” a spokesman said. “However, by appealing the last time and getting the tender cancelled, we have managed to save around Rs 75 million to the government. It was cancelled as PAB were satisfied with our submission where we proved that the TEC has favoured the selected bidder. Now that one party is appealing, I hope the PAB will investigate the matter and arrive at a fair decision.”
Last year, too, this tender was awarded to Access for Rs 344,404, 500.00 plus VAT--at least Rs 75 million over the current price. Then, too, there were allegations of tender manipulation in favour of “a pre- selected bidder”. The tender was canceled after both Sierra and CML-MTD won their appeals. The PAB declared the success bid legally invalid and ordered new tenders.
The bid document required fulfillment of stringent conditions to qualify, including prior experience in laying at least five Class I Pull FUR tracks and five Class II tracks in South Asia for the relaying of 400m class 1 synthetic track and relaying of 200m synthetic track at the Sugathadasa Sports Complex. The works include repairs and improvement to other features related to the synthetic tracks.
Sugathadasa Stadium was abandoned a few months after the tracks were re-laid in 2012 at a cost of Rs 113 million to host the Asian Junior Athletics Championships in Colombo. But the track showed signs of physical damage less than 12 months into completion as low quality raw materials had been used.
Any directive by PAB to call fresh tenders will put the country’s Sports Minister in a spot, as the delay will hugely impact the training of local athletes. Meanwhile, the Sports Ministry on Friday called fresh tenders to lay two synthetic tracks— one in Ratnapura and the other in Diyagama.