BPCL clarifies the city bus tender issue, Bidders still unconvinced

The Nu 44.6mn city bus tendering process was alleged unfair by the Samden vehicles last week. The issue when raised at the recent Meet the Press was dismissed as “too petty an issue to be raised at this level” by the Prime Minister.

The PM said ministers do not deal with these tendering processes.

On the sidelines of the meet the information and communications minister Nandalal Rai said that the claims made by the bidders that ‘the sample picture was approved by the cabinet’ is not true.

He said “The cabinet doesn’t have expertise on such matters”.

The sample picture of the bus was submitted by the Bhutan Postal Corporation Limited (BPCL) during a presentation made to the cabinet. Earlier the managing director of the BPCL Tseten Geltsen said that it was the cabinet that approved a sample picture submitted by BPCL.

“BPCL violated tender norms by asking for a photo of the bus after opening the bid documents. The photo was not required as per the tender documents,” said Kouenleg Gyeltshen the MD of Samdhen Vehicles.

He said “if the tender I bought had mentioned that a specific picture was required then we would have provided it”.

This decision by the BPCL did not comply with the procurement rules of the Public Procurement and Policy Division (PPPD) under the MoF.

According to the PPPD, if any government corporation or agencies are inviting tenders then the concerned tendering committee cannot change or add any new conditions after the tender has either been opened or the deadline has passed.

In a clarification letter sent by the Bhutan Postal Corporation Limited (BPCL) the corporation said that the catalogues submitted by Samden Vehicles and the one other bidder STCBL were of model TATA LPO 1512/55 which is in contrast to the model mentioned in the bid (LP 1512/47 WB BS III).

The BPCL letter said that the five TATA city buses which are operating right now in Thimphu have started giving problems in their first year of operation. On this the Samden Vehicles managing director Kouenleg Gyeltshen said that the TATA city buses model LP 1512 has not been supplied by the Samden Vehicles.

The TATA buses model LP 1512 that was mentioned in the letter on the other hand was supplied by the State Trading Corporation of Bhutan Limited (STCBL).

The STCBL general manager, Dawa Lham said that those buses were supplied according to the specifications of the BPCL. She also added that during the fabrication works in Jaigaon, India the BPCL officials including the managing director of BPCL frequently monitored the fabrication and coloring works alongside the STCBL officials.

She said that these allegations were completely baseless considering the fact that all works were closely monitored by both STCBL and BPCL. “Now the city buses will be of Chinese make and the Bhutanese market is not familiar with Chinese automobiles so apparently the maintenance of spare parts and service will be very difficult,” according to the STCBL GM.

Furthermore the letter stated that sealed quotations were opened on June 21, 2012 at 10.30am in the presence of the representatives of the suppliers who had submitted their quotations. It also stated that the committee in order to give equal opportunities to the bidders, decided to ask for a catalogue meeting their specifications from all the participating firms.

This new decision by the BPCL did not comply with the procurement rules of the PPPD.

Although all the firms submitted catalogues/brochures with bus pictures the very next day it did not differ much from the ones submitted earlier. So, the committee decided to award the contract for the supply of city buses on the basis of the catalogues submitted which met most of their specifications.

The contract was awarded to Global traders and Gangung driving center.

On this the Samden Vehicles MD said in comparison his total price for the 15 buses which met all specifications was Nu 32.2mn which is cheaper by Nu 12.4mn.

The Samden Vehicles MD said “if having the right photo was so important then BPCL could have easily given an attachment of the picture approved by the cabinet along with the tender documents”. He said that this would have not-only informed us in advance but it would have helped us to give them the picture they wanted”.

The BPCL had also mentioned about the catalogue which the Samden Vehicles had attached, a picture of a bus (BS II &six cylinders) along with the initial tender document for the supply of the medium city buses (model LP 713/38)  which did not meet the specifications mentioned in the tender document.

This however according to the Samden vehicles managing director was just an illustration but the specifications that was mentioned in his tender clearly agreed on most of the terms except for five clauses which was to have the buses equipped with Vehicle tracking system, get off ring, air-conditioning, radio set for communication and a specific level of floor type which had to be minimum.

To this the BPCL stated that their committee could not consider the validity of  the statement provided by the Samden vehicles as there was a very high degree of vagueness in the brochure and the statement submitted.

The second brochure which was submitted by the Samden vehicles and the STCBL were of model LP 712/42 BSIII which the BPCL said were not suitable to be used as city buses.

That said, the actual problem that The Bhutanese reported on the BPCL’s non-compliance with the Procurement rules Drafted by the finance ministry during the bidding was not mentioned in the letter.

Apparently, the Corporation is yet to draft their own procurement rules for the specific purposes. Despite the allegations made on the BPCL by various firms, the BPCL said that the committee’s decision was to ensure that the government’s mandate to provide safe, reliable, efficient and attractive urban transport is fulfilled to provide user friendly city buses.

The BCPCL claimed that the orders have been placed.