Addis Fortune (Addis Ababa)
Issayas Mekuria
17 September 2007
Addis Ababa — Controversy loomed over the procurement of 600tn of wood preservative chemical after the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo) disclosed the technical evaluation's result. This did not stop the Corporation's procurement committee from opening the financial offers of the bidding companies though.
"The way the procurement committee handled the technical evaluation aspect of the tender gives the impression that it favoured a particular company from inception," BASF's local representative, Tasew Negash, TNT Chemical's manager, told Fortune.
EEPCo floated a tender two months ago for the procurement of preservative chemical to treat electric poles to protect against pests.
On August 6, 2007, however, the documents were opened at the Corporation's sport club in the presence of the four bidding companies; BASF and Corn from Germany and Britain's Arch Timber and Osmos.
Due to its failure to submit the bid bond, Corn was disqualified on the same day.
However, when the disclosure of the technical evaluation was announced on August 31, it was disputed by BASF whose bid has trailed behind the top two bidders. Arch Timber topped the running with 50 points while Osmos, which supplied EEPCo with 200tn of wood preservative chemical last year, came second with 49 points.
The third place BASF with 47.5 points contested the wisdom with which the Corporation rated Arch Timber with 50 points, claiming that this company has not quoted the brands of chemical it intends to supply and the tender evaluation was not conducted in line with EEPCo's stated procedures.
"How could this company (Arch Timber) be rated with the highest points?" asked BASF representatives. "The contenders should have classified their financial offers into two categories such as unit price and total amount; in its absence, sadly there is no means to correct inconsistencies of this nature that happened on Arch Timber's part," BASF complained adding that it would express this displeasure to EEPCo's Board of Directors in writing.
An EEPCo source confirmed that the evaluation was made based on the quality assessment of the packing, density and rotation. Therefore, Arch Timber was rated with 10 for packing, 10 for density and 30 for rotation.
Although one member of the committee at EEPCo suggested that Arch Timber indeed has quoted the brand of chemical in its proposal, he wonders whether BASF's concern over the quotation of brands would change anything unless BASF is merely interested in accessing confidential information concerning Arch Timber's strategy.
Arch Timber's 1.1 million pound (20 million Br) financial offer was lower than Osmos' 1.2 million pound (22 million Br) and BASF's 1.7 million pound (31 million Br) financial offer.
Representatives of Osmos were not available for comment.
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