Forest dept bends rules
One company given undue advantage in vehicle purchase, finds govt report
The Bangladesh Forest Department has given undue advantage to a particular company while purchasing four double-cabin pickups and related accessories worth about Tk 2.4 crore for a development project, said a government report.
"The weight of the vehicle, its height, wheel measurement, ground clearance, maximum speed, the capacity of the fuel tank have been specified in the tender in a way that no other company can take part in it," said a report of the Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) published recently.
Given the specifications, only AG Automobiles, the local distributor of Ford vehicles, was able to participate in the tender opened on June 10, 2019, the report said, adding that dealers of Nissan, Toyota and Mitsubishi were unable to compete.
This violated the Public Procurement Act 2006.
AG Automobiles won the contract with a quoted price of about Tk 2.4 crore.
"If it were an open competition, the government could have saved money," the IMED report said.
In case of submission of lone tenders, the tender evaluation committee will reasonably consider the single tender and submit their tender evaluation report to the approving authority as per Rule 36 of the act.
However, no explanation has been found in the evaluation report, the IMED report said.
The four vehicles were purchased under a Tk 1,502.6 crore-project of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change funded by the World Bank and the government. Of the total project cost, Tk 2.4 crore has been earmarked for pickups in the project proposal.
Contacted, project director Gobinda Roy said, "The purchase has been done following the procurement rules. The internal audit has been conducted. The World Bank has conducted an audit. Everything is okay. Why and how does the question arise?" he asked.
The government has prepared the specification and AG Automobiles participated in the e-tender accordingly, said an official of the company.
"It is completely unreasonable if anyone says that the specification was made only for us," he added.