Scrutiny of Padma Bridge tenders becomes uncertain

FE Team | Published: December 10, 2011 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

Munima Sultana The contract of the New Zealand-based consultants of the trouble-torn Padma Multi-purpose Bridge Project has expired, though their assigned work of scrutinising its important tender documents is yet to be completed.Officials said the contract of the Maunsell-AECOM automatically expired on October 31, as the international consultants did not express any interest to renew it to the Bangladesh Bridge Authority (BBA), the executing agency of the $2.95 billion project. They said the renewal of the consultants' contract was necessary, as bidding process of the project's five categories could not be completed by November due to various reasons. An official letter was sent to the consultants on October 20, asking them to submit their wrapping reports, the officials added. The Maunsell-AECOM worked in a consortium of local and international companies. They were appointed as consultants in early 2009 to carry out various preparatory works of the mega project. Initially they were appointed for 22 months at a cost of $9.85 million. Their contract was renewed in November 2010 at $16.5 million. The fate of the country's longest bridge project became uncertain since last year when the World Bank (WB), the coordinating agency of the multi-donor-funded project, made delay in releasing the pre-qualification documents of the bridge's main and river training works. The WB also cancelled the list of the companies, which the BBA short-listed for the main bridge construction work. However, the situation deteriorated further after the WB brought two separate allegations of corruption this September, restating its firm stand on 'zero tolerance' to corruption in its one of the highest investment projects. In September, the World Bank Integrity Vice President requested the Canadian police to investigate on an allegation against a Canadian company that participated in the bidding for supervision consultancy of the bridge project. In a report to the finance minister and some other government high officials, the WB brought allegations against the immediate-past communications minister's family firm to work as the 'silent agent' in the bidding process. The WB also suspended its $1.2 billion commitment to the project. The BBA officials said due to meagre hope of immediate solution regarding the allegations of the co-financiers, the contract of the international consultants was not renewed. An official said the BBA had no other option but to take the decision, as it had to count a significant amount of money to keep the international consultants for an uncertain period. "This time the consultants did not show any interest in renewing the contract. So it automatically expired on October 31," Project Director Md Shafiqul Islam told the FE. The BBA officials, however, said the Padma Bridge Project still needs the consultants' service for another seven to eight months after resumption of the project's bidding process. They said it would not be possible to complete the important work of evaluating the documents, to be submitted by the short-listed companies, without the international consultants.