Tender bender in Sri Lanka's fertiliser imports

Sri Lanka's fertiliser imports are likely to be tainted again with tender manipulations once again by the authorities with the connivance of middlemen following the practice of the previous Rajapaksa regime, local agents representing overseas suppliers alleged.

They revealed that Urea fertiliser stocks are being purchased without following tender guidelines, to suit some companies' own agenda, and not to meet the country's requirement.

Revealing details of an attempt to bend a tender in the purchasing of 42,000 MT of Urea recently, they said that the government should take prompt action to halt such tender manipulations.

The Ministry of Agriculture closed a tender on March 24 for the supply of 42000 MT Urea and out of 12 prequalified bidders a Chinese firm Fujian Fertiliser Company Ltd offered the lowest price.

The Standard Cabinet Appointed Procurement Committee (SCAPC) decided to award 36000 MT Urea at US$ 237.66 with 270 days credit to be supplied to the Ceylon Fertiliser Corporation (CFC) and 6000 MT to the Colombo Commercial Fertiliser (CCF) (both government organisations) at US$228.85.

This was conveyed to all participants by the Secretary/ Ministry of Agriculture by his letter dated March 28 indicating to make representation to the Procurement Appeal Board if there is any objection from any participant.

As there were no objections, the letter of award was issued to Fujian on April 8. In terms of the tender conditions, the successful bidder should submit a Performance Bond (PB) within 5 working days from the date of letter of award.

But in some exceptional cases if there is an advantage to the country extensions have been granted.

In any case Fujian had failed to submit the PB and finally the Agriculture Ministry decided to cancel the award and forfeit the Bid Bond, agents said.

The normal practice in the event of a cancellation is to inform all prequalified bidders and recall the tender immediately.

Instead the top officials in the ministry are trying to strike a deal ignoring all accepted norms and tender procedure with a Uzbekistan organisation namely UzAgro on the pretext of doing a government-to- government deal, local agents representing overseas suppliers alleged.

Even if it is a deal involving two governments, it will not be beneficial to the country, because there is no credit line or grant from Uzbekistan to Sri Lanka and the parties involved only benefit but not the country, they added.

This organisation has participated in tenders in the past from Uzbekistan at extremely high prices and never been awarded a fertiliser tender up to now.

In the event, the cabinet of ministers approves the purchase, the loss to the country in foreign exchange will be huge, they claimed.