SL fuel procurement tenders face corruption allegations

Sri Lanka’s fuel procurement process is now tainted with a new corrupt tactic of eliminating prospective bidders in favour of a few selected international suppliers, awarding them the gasoline term tenders and causing millions of dollar loss for the country.

The latest tender bender has come to light in the term tender floated by Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) to import 1.8 million barrels of gasoline which had been marred with irregularities, corrupt practices and wheeler dealings of officials, disgruntled fuel suppliers alleged.

They noted that these officials are all out to support their favoured registered suppliers to win the tenders by blocking the entry of newly registered suppliers into the procurement process misleading the Energy Ministry and tender boards.

In this context, three bidders have submitted their applications for the latest tender and the lowest bidder Coral Energy Pte Ltd has been rejected by the Special Standing Cabinet Appointed Procurement Committee citing its non eligibility while selecting Oman Trading Ltd.

The three bidders who applied for the tender were Oman Trading Limited, Vitol Asia (Singapore) Ltd and Coral Energy Pte Ltd Singapore.

All attempts were being made to qualify the next bidder who has quoted Rs.400 million more to satisfy the increasing corruption demands despite the country’s current forex situation, they alleged.

A letter sent by the Energy Ministry to Coral Energy has informed it that due to the failure of verification on the existence of the company and nature of business, the bid of the company has been considered as non responsive.

This is the new practice followed by some corrupt officials engaged in the emergency fuel procurement process with the aim of getting kickbacks from bidders for the elimination of the prospective bidders from getting the fuel import tender, these suppliers pointed out.

Coral Energy Pte Ltd Singapore, which has been newly registered in the list of tender companies, has submitted an appeal to the

Procurement Appeal Board at the Presidential Secretariat seeking justice.

Responding to these allegations, Energy Minister Udaya Gammanpila told the Business Times, he is not interfering with fuel tender procedure whatsoever and this decision had been taken by the Cabinet-appointed special procurement committee.

He was made to understand that the credibility of Coral Energy had been verified by the Ceylon Pe t roleum Corporation and the Ministry by requesting the Foreign Ministry to inquire into the credentials of the company from the Sri Lanka High Commission in Singapore.

He added that the disqualification of the prospective bidder had been done following the report sent by the High Commission.

The High Commission in Singapore has sent a recommendation on the directions of officials here stating that a company reportedly with US$ 5.3 billion revenue in 2022 ‘is not actively engaged in trading’, informed sources said.

The Energy Ministry and CPC officials are now in the practice of deciding on procurement based on ‘office visits’ to the bidders, they said.

All attempts to contact the CPC Chairman Sumith Wijesinghe for his response on these allegations failed as he was busy with his official meetings.