Amidst an ongoing furore over the awarding of a US$18.1M contract to Surendra Engineering to build a specialty hospital, Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon yesterday announced that the awarding of the contract will be reassessed.
He said that the usual approach is for the disadvantaged bidder to lodge a protest in accordance with the protest provisions in the Procurement Act and he understands that a protest of some sort was lodged. “My information yesterday (Tuesday) is that a protest of some sort was lodged with the procurement entity, the Ministry of Health. On that basis and presuming that the way in which it was done accorded with the provisions in law, I see no other alternative but to have this entire award reassessed and the basis for the protest examined,” he said.
The government had previously accused the rejected specialty hospital bidder, Fedders Lloyd Corporation of orchestrating a campaign against the work of the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) committee that awarded the contract to Surendra Engineering.
Surendra Engineering was awarded a US$18.1 million contract for the project, for which Fedders Lloyd put in a bid of US$17.69 million (after a 23% discount from its initial bid of US$22.96 million).
Following the announcement of the award of the contract to Surendra, Fedders Lloyd charged that the procurement process was improper and said it will raise the issue with the government of India and India’s Export Import (EXIM) Bank as well as the NPTAB here. EXIM Bank of India is the bank responsible for the line of credit for the contract.
Despite questions, the ministry of health is still to provide answers on key issues on the specialty hospital including why a company with major hospital building experience was not chosen. Fedders Lloyd has built around 90 hospitals worldwide while Surendra has not constructed any.
On June 26, the bids of the five companies that had submitted tenders were opened. The bidders were: Fedders Lloyd (US$17,679,000 after a 23% discount); Shapoorji Pallonji (US$42,473,600); Jaguar Overseas Limited (US$15,658,000) and the Vydehi Institute of Medical Sciences and Research of India (US$19.5 million); and Surendra Engineering (US$18,180,000). After Luncheon announced that Cabinet had given its ‘no- objection’ to the award of the contract to the tune of USD$18,180,000, Fedders Lloyd objected to the award to Surendra Engineering, as it claimed that the company had breached tender document stipulations.
The company has written to the Ministry of Health, carbon copying the correspondence to the Minister of Health, President Donald Ramotar and EXIM Bank of India (which is financing the project), among others, asking that the contract be reviewed and that it be awarded the contract instead.
The letter also included the company’s assessment of the bidding and evaluation process—which prompted it to protest the decision—and it maintains its claims that there were irregularities in the bidding and evaluation process.
