The Bangladesh Bridge Authority (BBA) has not been following any uniform guideline in the process of bidding for different segments of work of the Padma Multipurpose Bridge (PMB) project.
The BBA, sources said, is following a procedure that is more of a mixture of the guideline suggested by the World Bank (WB) and the government's own Public Procurement Rules (PPR).
Citing examples, a former official at the Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU), said the two-stage and two-envelope tender method was earlier suggested by the World Bank when it was actively involved in the PMB project. The same procedure has been followed in the bidding for five segments of the project. The segments include main bridge, river training, approach-roads on both sides of the bridge and service area.
In the PPR, the two-stage tendering method has been proposed for the critical types of work where bidders have to submit both technical and financial proposals at a time, said the expert.
"In the case of the Padma Bridge project, technical bids were invited first and only the technically responsive firms could participate in next stage to submit their financial offers," the official said.
An expert, who was involved in the formulation of the PPR 2008, also raised the question of giving scope to a single company to submit financial offer when two other technically responsive companies had applied for extension of time to submit their financial bids. However, the firms in question having received time extension for a couple of times could not submit their financial bids.
The BBA kept the tender confined only to the companies that were selected through the prequalification bid done before the WB's withdrawal from the project.
Another expert also questioned the participation of a Chinese company in the technical bids for river training works of the PMB project since it was blacklisted by the WB.
As per the PPR, all the companies are required to mention in the bid documents that they are not bankrupt, not blacklisted and do not have any record of bad performance.
"How can a company be technically responsive when its selection in the Dhaka- Chittagong highway project raised controversy and its performance in the same project put the government in trouble," he added.
The tender process of the $3.0 billion Padma Multipurpose Bridge Project began with the government's own funding arrangement on January 31, 2013 after the government withdrew its request to the World Bank to fund the Padma Bridge project.
The BBA has almost completed the tender process of main bridge work and two approach road and service area development but is yet to complete the river training work. It has also not selected the construction supervision consultant and the independent consultant.