The fact surfaced when Nepali Congress lawmaker Dip Kumar Upadhaya circulated the MoU at a meeting of parliament´s Public Accounts Commitee (PAC) which called to grill Tourism Ministry and civil aviation authority officials over the controversy created by short deadline to bidders.[break]
The MoU also availed by Republica commits that "the government of Nepal shall provide CAMC the solid and substantial support" in a tender that Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) would call for Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract for the regional international airport. The MoU is undersigned by Pun on behalf of Nepali government and Lui Shengcheng, regional general manager of China CAMC Engineering.
The deal was signed on September 20, 2011 at Ministry of Finance in Singh Durbar, and Energy Minister Posta Bahadur Bogati and Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Yang Houlan have also signed it as witnesses. It was following the deal that MoF had instructed CAAN to invite the bid for developing the regional airport.
CAAN had invited bids from Chinese promoted company on February 9, however, its decision to pledge 45 days timeline to respond to the bid call drew serious questions from different quarters.
"As the airport is being constructed under soft loans of China´s Exim Bank, it is okay to call tenders from Chinese contractors only. But who gave the authority to the FM or the government to make such an commitment on behalf of the country to support CAMC?" said Uapdhyaya.
"If FM is so much committed to support CAMC, why is the government staging this drama of calling the tender? It is only making other Chinese bidders look foolish and made mockery of country´s law," said irate Upadhyaya.
Lawmakers said making such a commitment to a particular Chinese company, lack of distribution of bid document for two weeks even after publishing the bid notice and setting 45-day submission deadline had made the whole affair of tendering out (EPC) contract fishy.
"Regional International Airport has been a 30-year old cherished dream of people of Pokhara and Nepal as a whole. Sadly, this saga of unfair play by the government has hurt the sentiment of all Nepalis," said Rabindra Adhikari, a CPN UML lawmaker.
Other lawmaker Dr Prakash Chandra Lohani said the deadline of 45-day was not enough for the interested companies to make necessary preparation to apply for the tender. He gave examples of other smaller projects where the deadline was set up to 200 days.
"The national priority project like this should be given deadline of at least 150 days," he added. Following heated debate, Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Wednesday decided to summon Pun on the next meeting for clarifying his action.
Tourism Ministry and CAAN officials, meanwhile, expressed their ignorance on the pre-agreement signed by Pun with China CAMC. "We knew nothing about this MoU and have called the tender by following the existing Public Procurement Act," said Director General of CAAN Tri Ratna Manadhar.
Tourism and Civil Aviation Secretary Dr Ganesh Raj Joshi assured lawmakers that the tender process was going to be transparent as only the lowest bidder will win the contract. He also disclosed that 10 companies have taken the bid document and six of them have asked for the extension of the deadline, including China CAMC.
The government had long committed that it was taking soft loan of around $ 145 million from China´s Exim Bank for developing the project. Its project cost is estimated at $ 166 million. The government had acquired 3,106 ropanies of land for the construction of the airport at Chhinedada, Pokhara in 1975.
Tender deadline extended by a month
A board meeting of Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) on Wednesday extended the period of bid submission for Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract execution of Pokhara Regional International Airport Project by 30 days.
Director General of CAAN Tri Ratna Manandhar said the deadline was extended after they realized the time of 45-days was not enough. "The interested Chinese companies including those who have taken the bid document also requested for the extension," he said.
Prior to PAC meeting, board members of CAAN had agreed in principle to extend the deadline by two weeks. The decision has now allowed interested bidders to submit their bids by April 24.
According to the tender documents, the bidder must be a Chinese company or joint venture with more than 50 percent share of Chinese company.
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