Consortium of Thakral Brothers Pte Ltd and Thakral Information Systems Pvt Ltd, one of the two responsive bidders for the job, on Monday lodged complaint with the technical evaluation committee (TEC) headed by a joint secretary of the EC Secretariat that floated the tender.

The TEC however outright rejected the allegation and claimed that transparency has been maintained in the process for evaluating the bids.

In its complaint letter the Thakral Brothers, based in Singapore, claimed that their offer met 100 per cent of the tender specification. As the lowest responsive bidder and with a price lower by Tk 7.80 crore from the next responsive bidder, it certainly can claim that the contract should be awarded to it, the letter said.

"We have adequate reasons to be concerned about the technical evaluation process of the tender. It seems to us that the technical evaluation committee is evaluating our bid outside the mandated provisions of Bangladesh Public Procurement Act," it added.

"Certain questions by the TEC made us concerned and we understood the TEC is recommending that our offer should be made non-responsive," stated the compliant letter referring to the meeting with the TEC.

The consortium requested the TEC to investigate its complaint and respond to its concerns within five working days from the date of receiving this complaint letter, complying with the provision of Public Procurement Rules 2003.

The TEC has evaluated only two bids submitted by consortium of Telecommunication Consultants India Ltd (TCIL) and Leads Corporation Bangladesh with a quoted price of $6,644,728 and Thakral consortium of $5,529,800 for the laptops. The TEC rejected six other bids at the initial stage.

When contacted, Rafiqul Islam, chief of the TEC and also joint secretary to the EC Secretariat, told The Daily Star yesterday that he received the complaint and would respond in accordance with the law.

"We have not taken any decision. We have just placed our recommendation to the Election Commission and now the commission will take the decision," Rafiqul said. He brushed aside any allegation of lack of transparency in the process of evaluating the bids.

The EC would decide who would be awarded the contract, the TEC chief said, adding, "We have just evaluated the bids, nothing more."

The EC Secretariat floated the tender on June 7 inviting bids for supplying the laptops with web cam, fingerprint scanner, Bangla keyboard and button mouse.

A total of eight companies participated in the tender. Apart from TCIL and Thakral, consortium of Flora Telecom Ltd and HPD system SBNDBHO Malaysia quoted Tk 38,59,47,400, consortium of Data Edge Ltd and Senzen Foundation Information Ltd Tk 42,48,00,436, BD Associates Tk 47,97,73,720, Singer Bangladesh Tk 55,16, 00,000, Singapore Technologies $6,799,428 and consortium of Pawa Brothers and Rangs IT quoted a price of $10,720,000.

In its letter, the Thakral consortium also claimed that the TCIL is being currently investigated by the United States government on charge of corruption in the procurement process of United Nations.

The Thakral also submitted some documents and reports published in different international newspapers about the corruption charge against a TCIL agent who reportedly bribed an UN official to secure several valuable contracts for TCIL, including contracts for radio communications equipment, desktop computers and computer monitors, laptop computers, and information technology staffing support, worth a total of over $50 million.

"We are concerned because we came to know that Telecommuni-cation Consultants India Ltd (TCIL), the prime bidder of the competitive consortium is currently being investigated by the United States government for corruption in the procurement process of the United Nations," it added.

Asked whether the TEC considered the allegation of corruption against the TCIL, the TEC chief said they have worked in line with the terms of reference and there was no scope to review any such allegation against any bidder.