Tender fiasco at Transport Ministry
Sep 18, 2016
The Civil Aviation Authority of the Transport Ministry has awarded a tender to M.S. Technologies, an inexperienced and unqualified company, to re-install the CCTV camera system at the Katunayake International Airport. M.S. Technologies has given as its address the same address of another company whose bid was cancelled at the opening of the bids. Therefore, it is clear M.S. Technologies is only a nominal company ‘created’ entirely for the purpose of getting this particular tender. The bid by Just In Time (Pvt.) Ltd. was cancelled as it had failed to submit the relevant documents. Giving the same address that of Just In Time Ltd., M.S. Technologies was able to get the tender for Rs. 191.99 million.
The address given by both companies is no. 370, Galle Road, Colombo 03. Just in Time (Ltd.) is notorious for bribing ministry officials to obtain tenders. M.S. Technologies has had no previous experience in installing CCTV cameras. It was an underhand dealing with the authority in the ministry that awarded the tender to a high bid by this inexperienced company, although many renowned companies had placed lower bids. Among them are Softlogic, DIMO, Hayleys and Metropolitan companies.
The basic qualification for submitting bids was previous experience in installing a CCTV camera system for not less than Rs. 200 million. M.S. Technologies has not fulfilled that requirement. The ministry authority has audaciously disregarded the other requirements – a compulsory five year experience in installing CCTV cameras and the availability of three years of audited financial statements.
Ministry sources reveal that the experiences and the audited financial statements of the rejected Just In Time Ltd. had been given as that of M.S. Technologies in order to obtain the tender. Surprisingly, the tender by M.S. Technologies is a low-cost video monitoring system with a video data storage that is not even up to the minimum standards and not suitable for an international level airport. Therefore, it is very clear that an act of corruption has taken place in the ministry’s acceptance of the bid.
The latest is, finding that it is unable to reinstall the CCTV cameras on its own, M.S. Technologies is seeking assistance from other companies for the purpose. The other bidders have asked COPE to investigate the awarding of the tender, but the committee is adopting a lethargic approach.
Safety-wise, the Katunayake airport is one of the key nerve centres of the country. Such a location could be targeted by international terrorists. For instance, ISIS terrorists are likely to use airports to achieve their political objectives. In view of such a threat, the new CCTV camera system to be installed at the Katunayake Airport should be very effective and powerful. Also, modern equipment should be there to identify people clearly. For that, the CCTV camera system should be a modern internet protocol camera system. What M.S. Technologies is going to install are not of that quality and are of very low standard.
Relevant authorities should immediately investigate the awarding of this tender secretly and if any unlawful act has taken place, strong measures should be taken against the culprits. That is because this tender fiasco has paved the way for making the Katunayake Airport an insecure place.
