The Sports Ministry has allegedly tailored the specifications of a tender to re-lay the 400 metre and 200 metre training tracks at the Sugathadasa Sports Complex in order to award the project to a pre-selected company.

The works include repairs and improvement to other features related to the synthetic tracks. It is being claimed that the bidding criteria have been designed to facilitate a favoured company and that no other contractor can compete on those terms.

Now, interested companies have written to the Sports Ministry to make the process more transparent for the benefit of the country.

The bid document required the fulfillment of strict conditions to qualify, including prior experiencing in laying at least one Class I track and five Class II tracks in South Asia. Critics argue that these have been introduced based on the experience of the ‘favoured’ bidder.

“Synthetic Track Manufacture/Installer with experience in installing minimum of Ten (10) IAAF Class 1 tracks including at least one (1) in South Asia and minimum of Ten (10) IAAF Class II Synthetic athletics tracks including at least five (5) in South Asia,” Section II Clause 3.5 (a) states.

According to the above criteria, only Conica Sports Flooring - a company which laid the Synthetic Track at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium ahead of the 2010 Commonwealth Games and 12 other Class II tracks in India - meets the pre-requisites.

“Given the bid specifications, it’s clear that they have rigged it even before calling for bids. There’s only one company that qualify under these criteria,” said a bidder. “In that case, why they waste our money and time?”

“We have no issue who gets it as long as they follow the correct procedure and select the best available bid,” another said. “But they didn’t even evaluate the proposals of those qualify under major deviations.”

“They have laid down tough criteria for the foreign company to meet but had lowered the qualifying criteria for the local company which actually placed the bid,” he said. It’s very clear that this has been manipulated, and is also against the National Procurement Guidelines.”

Six companies—Access Engineering PLC, Sierra Construction Ltd, CML-MTD Construction Ltd, RR Construction, Fentons Ltd and Konelu Construction - submitted technical and price proposals (design and build) but Fentons, RR and Konelu had not met the major deviations and were disqualified.

Section 2 (f) states that the “bidders with CIDA (Construction Industry Development Agency (Formerly ICTAD) registration Grade 3 or above for highway construction with joint venture with Synthetic Manufacture or his Authorised Agent can participate in the tender”. This has been done to fit in the pre-selected bidder, industry sources argue.

Meanwhile, Central Engineering Consultancy Bureau (CECB) had sent out letters requesting for quotations from international suppliers. The Daily Mirror is in possession of a copy.

“If this is an open tender, why do they want price quotations before calling for tenders?” questioned an authoritative source. “This shows that they were planning to rig it from the start.”

Writing to the Secretary of the Ministry of Sports, one bidder cites that there’s a strong possibility some manufacturers may use low quality Asian-sourced raw materials for the project instead of US or European raw materials.  

“If this particular practice played a part in the early demise of the previous track at the Sugathadasa, then we would agree that this approach should be avoided at all costs,” the letter written by one of the bidders stated.

“We kindly solicit your intervention in this matter and that necessary measures be taken to arrest the situation so that justice and equality be given to other bidders.”

Sugathadasa track, which is currently in a dilapidated state, was laid in 2012 ahead of the Asian Junior Athletics Championships in Colombo at a cost of Rs. 113 million.

However, the track showed signs of physical damage less than 12 months into completion as low quality raw materials had been used by the contractor.

“There’s a strong possibility that we might have a failed track once again,” another source said. “This is the only track we have and we should make sure to get the best product on offer in order to facilitate the careers of our athletes. But sadly it’s not happening again and they have forgotten that shortcuts have serious consequences.”

In October 2014, a company offered to re-lay the 400m track at a discounted price of US $285,200 (approximately Rs. 42m at current exchange rate) but authorities did not proceed due to reasons best known to them. (Champika Fernando)