Dar orders probe into ‘irregularities’ in Jeddah consulate construction tender

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar has ordered an inquiry into alleged irregularities in a tender, seeking bids for the construction of a Pakistani Mission building in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

The Pakistani Mission in Jeddah had shortlisted two-firms for the construction of the consulate building last month. The lowest bidder has claimed that the firm was deliberately knocked out from the bidding process.

“The matter is being investigated… the complainant is a bidder and a loser,” Dar confirmed to the HUM Investigation Team.   

“The mission’s construction committee, in its meeting on July 3,  2024, had a detailed consideration/review of the technical evaluation report submitted by the consultant,” says a letter written by the Pakistan consulate to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“It may kindly be recalled that the bids against the tender floated by Mission for the above project, were opened on June 23, 2024. Subsequently, design and supervision consultant of the Mission M/s ASAS Development conducted a detailed technical evaluation of the bidding documents submitted by the six participating firms,” the letter says adding that “the consultant submitted technical report to the Mission in July 2024, recommending to award the contract to the lowest bidder M/s Modon Al-Bina Construction at the cost o SAR 29,892,814.46 excluding VAT (around SAR 29.9 M).”

Dar had received a complaint from M/S Ghulam Hassan, a bidder, complaining that “his bid was disregarded despite “they propose to fully construct the new consulate building for under SAR 26 million excluding VAT. Our offer includes the construction of an additional floor, specifically a basement for car parking.” 

“As a follow-up to the above decisions, the construction committee of the mission conducted a series of consultative meetings with the Consultant. Based on these discussions, the Consultant submitted revised BoQs at a cost of SAR 25.99 million (around SAR four million less than the original bid) mainly by removing some elements of the project including (i) Building Management System (BMS) which is a common local requirement for all modern corporate/commercial buildings; (ii) reducing the car parking space; (ili) restricting the fire suppression system’s electronic control upto 2nd floor; (iv) only repairing the existing dilapidated boundary wall of the compound instead of creating new one; and (v) major cuts in financial provisions kept for contingencies / unforeseen expenditures. At the same time, the consultant had also recommended to execute the project on the basis of original BoQs as per tender in order to ensure the quality of the construction and to maintain the futuristic outlook of the premises,” the letter says.

“The mission’s construction committee has endorsed the recommendation of the consultant,” reads the letter.