Ministry cancels dodgy contract:Daily Star

The road transport and bridges ministry yesterday cancelled the contract of a joint venture company for collecting toll from the Meghna and Meghna-Gumti bridges due to alleged irregularities in getting the job. The ministry also ordered the Roads and Highways Department to float a fresh tender. RHD Chief Engineer Md Feroz Iqbal, who had awarded the now-cancelled contract, was yesterday issued a sh
ow-cause notice. He was asked to explain why he had awarded the contract at a low rate. The joint venture of Malaysian MEX and local INFRATECH had won the contract asking for Tk 2.09 crore. The job includes maintaining small stretches of the Dhaka-Chittagong highway and employing and paying for people who would be collecting the toll for three years. An internal probe into the process revealed that the winning company in collaboration with some officials of RHD had indulged in “trickery” and asked for less than Tk 3 crore to get the job. An RHD chief engineer can approve and award a job if the quoted price is less than Tk 3 crore. Ministry approval is required for jobs that are worth more than Tk 3 crore. RHD officials who conducted the probe recommended that the department cancel the tender and float a fresh one since there was no way the company could get the job done with just Tk 2.09 crore. They believe the company would have indulged in corruption in collecting toll. Advertisement However, a senior RHD official told The Daily Star that the contract was awarded following procurement laws as per which the lowest bidder must be selected if it fulfilled all other criteria. RHD invited the tender on September 17 last year. A total of eight companies had bid for the operation and management of toll collection at Meghna and Meghna-Gumti bridges on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway. An evaluation committee, led by Additional Chief Engineer of RHD Sharful Anam Khan, recommended the MEX-INFRATECH for the job as it was the lowest bidder. Chief Engineer Feroz Iqbal awarded the contract on December 17 and MEX-INFRATECH was scheduled to start working from yesterday. But other bidders questioned the unusually low rate and filed a complaint with the ministry. MM Builders and Engineers had been collecting toll at the bridges for the last five years.