Bidders suspect foul play in Karachi Port Trust’s dredging contract

ISLAMABAD: Karachi Port Trust (KPT) is set to award an important dredging contract to a bidder previously disqualified due to insufficient capacity, sources familiar with the development told Dawn on Wednesday.

On July 14, the KPT invited bids for dredging 4 million cubic meters to maintain its navigation channel and the work was to be completed within 120 days.

As bids were received from four international companies, three bidders proposed dredging with equipment larger than 15,000 cubic meters capacity. In contrast, one bidder, China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC), proposed underpowered equipment and was found non-compliant with the timelines and specified quality standards.

Approach PPRA for violations of procurement rules

The initial technical evaluation by the KPT team highlighted the need for a large-sized dredger to complete the job given the soil conditions and work methodology and disqualified CHEC.

Surprisingly, the final evaluation report termed the Chinese company as eligible and qualified for the dredging award as it was the lowest bidder.

In reaction, one bidder complained to the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) that the KPT’s decision-making process violated the rules.

During the evaluation process, the bidder informed the PPRA that the KPT team had highlighted the need for a large-sized dredger to remove the material per international and engineering standards.

The PPRA was also informed that the qualified bidder had proposed a dredger of over 20,000 cubic meters of capacity comparable with the KPT’s in-house dredger, which had failed in similar operations, and this was noted by the technical committee in its early report.

The PPRA has written to the KPT that “this prima facie is a violation of Rule 35 as neither complete technical evaluation report has been announced nor any justification has been provided for acceptance or rejection of the technical proposals.” The PPRA letter added that any “violation of procurement rules shall be tantamount to mis-procurement”.

Standard dredging was required to ensure that large vessels could call at the port without risk of grounding.

Meanwhile, in response to the query, the KPT spokesperson said that the final decision had not been made and the matter was being processed.

Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2024