Same fate follows the Re-Tender at Sugathadasa

It’s been almost seven months since the Sports Ministry opened the tender for re-laying of the worn out synthetic track at Sugathadasa Stadium and the process of finalizing a contractor for the task is yet to be fulfilled.

Sports Ministry first called for tenders last October and following a decision by the Procurement Appeal Board (PAB) there was a call for a re-tender. At present it is in the process of a decision regarding a successful bidder for the second tender which is also facing the possibility of going for yet another re-tender as unsuccessful bidders are getting ready to appeal again.

What happened earlier?

Sports Ministry called for tenders on October 12th 2016 for relaying of 400m and 200m tracks at Sugathadasa Stadium where there were specific requirements such as the bidder having previous experience laying 10 IAAF class 1 tracks with one track to be in South Asia and should have laid five full Pur tracks. The local partner should be a SLIDA C3 Company.

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

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

Access International/Conica joint venture was awarded the tender for the value of Rs 367.84 million rupees plus vat where two unsuccessful bidders made an appeal to the Procurement Appeal Board (PAB) and upon the hearing PAB cancelled the tender and asked Sports Ministry to re-tender. The ministry tried appealing to the Cabinet without success, to go with the previously selected bidder.

Present situation:

Ir’s learns that the Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC) had given their verdict already and it’s now up to the Cabinet Appointed Procurement Committee (CAPC) to give their approval regarding the final winner and it is learnt that Access Engineering / Conica JV will once again be awarded the contract.

The Issue

Other bidders claim that the new tender and procedure that took place was rigged once again to cater to the needs of Access Engineering / Conica JV. Among the stringent technical specifications for the second tender there were specific rules as follows.

1. Synthetic Track manufacturer should have 5 IAAF Class 1 Full Pur Tracks.

2.10 years Experience in Synthetic Track manufacturing/laying.

3. Local contractor with CIDA C2 or above.

4. Track product should have 15mm thickness and IAAF product certificate should be submitted.

As other bidders claim there are a number of irregularities where Access Engineering / Conica JV do not qualify for the tender.

Among those are claims that there are some specific ones which would result in delaying the re-laying of track once again if unsuccessful bidders go for an appeal again.

Those are as follows;

Access Engineering did not have the SLIDA C2 certificate until 14th February and Sports Ministry waited till Access Engineering / Conica JV got that certificate to do the re-tender on 28th February after PAB had given their verdict last December.

BASF Chemical Company who are the owners of Conica Sports Surfaces sold this business unit along with the premises at Schaffhausen, Switzerland to Munich based Serafin Group in the second-quarter of 2013. Based on this sale, Conica current set up does not have 10 years experience required in the tender.

Conica has only 4 class 1 Full tracks and One Class 1 Sandwich track.

Conica has experience in only Two 15mm tracks, therefore the tender document was prepared to suit them by not mentioning the Class 1 5 tracks should be 15mm.

Last year TEC only changed their Chairman.

What happened in 2012?

Sugathadasa track, which is currently not in a usable condition, was laid in 2012 ahead of the Asian Junior Athletics Championships (AJAC) in Colombo at a cost of Rs 113 million. The track showed signs of physical damage less than 12 months into completion. In October 2014, a company offered to re-lay the 400m track at a discounted price of US $285,200 (approximately Rs 43m at current exchange rate) but authorities did not proceed due to reasons best known to them.

Effect for athletes and athletics

Sri Lanka has only one other synthetic track for the entire country in Diyagama that too is worn out and in a dangerous condition.The Sugathadasa Stadium wasn’t usable for the last three years which affected the country’s athletics largely where a number of international athletic championships could have been hosted in Colombo. To top that, practices had hit a stage where an athlete had no other ground to train, reducing their performance levels and increasing the possibility of them getting injured.