Monies for the building and equipping of the specialty hospital at Turkeyen, East Coast Demerara by the Indian company, Surendra Engineer-ing have not yet been released by the Exim Bank of India and the project seems to be in limbo.
Another Indian company, Fedders-Lloyd had raised vociferous objections to the award of the contract earlier this year to Surendra and local authorities were also forced to defend the manner in which the final decision was made.
“Fedders-Lloyd had written to Exim Bank of India outlying their concerns… what we do know is that the money has not yet been released by Exim Bank of India. As such the project is on hold”, a source close to the project told Stabroek News.
A US$18,180,000 ($3,689,616,400) contract was awarded to Surendra Engineering for the project and since the announcement it has come under fire with not only one of the bidders but both parliamentary opposition parties calling for a probe into the award.
Government in early October stated that the contract agreement was already signed with Surendra Engi-neering. From that point to now there has been very little happening at the proposed site.
Fedders-Lloyd, one of five Indian firms which submitted tenders, charged that the procurement process was impro-per. The other bidders were the contractor that built the national stadium, Shapoorji Pallonji (which bid US$42,473,600 or $8.4 billion), Jaguar Overseas Limited (US$15,658,000 or $3.05 billion) and the Vydehi Institute of Medical Sciences and Research of India (US$19.5 million).
Fedders-Lloyd claimed that it was the lowest bidder, a bid pegged at US$17.69 million after a discount of 23% of its initial bid of US$22.96 million and that they had formed a consortium with specialty hospital builders NOUS Consultants. This firm has expertise in building specialized hospitals and has commissioned about 90 hospitals and other healthcare facilities around the world while Surendra Engi-neering had none. Further, they contended that there were irregularities in the bidding and evaluation process and Surendra had no expertise in meeting the requirements for such a project as the specialty hospital.
Fedders-Lloyd had stated that they would raise the issue with the Government of India and India’s Export Import (EXIM) Bank as well as the local National Procure-ment and Tender Administra-tion Board and also wrote to this government asking for the contract. Sources say that the noise raised by Fedders-Lloyd has attracted attention in New Delhi which is increasingly sensitive about corruption allegations ensnaring Indian companies both domestically and abroad.
The Health Ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Leslie Cadogan, had said that Fedders-Lloyd had failed an aspect of the bid‘s evaluation process but declined to divulge any details when pressed.
Cadogan’s ministry then formally responded to Fedders-Lloyd’s concerns about the award of the contract, saying it had openly and transparently assessed the “best offer” made to the country. The response was sent to the company a day before Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon announced that the awarding would be reassess-ed. However, it remains unknown who undertook the review.
Fedders-Lloyd yesterday remained mum on developments saying it is awaiting word from “higher authorities” in India before they issue a statement.
