After reviewing the documents received to Anti-Corruption Commission for the investigation on regarding authorisation of private companies by Ministry of Islamic Affairs, to send pilgrims to Hajj for the year 1438, the Commissioned has observed following findings,
The Ministry of Islamic affairs had given information on marking criteria and evaluation guideline to bidders on the pre-bid meeting held regarding the announcement (No: (IUL)142-C2/1/2017/34) made to call for parties interested in sending pilgrims to Hajj. However, it was evident from documents that a different criterion was followed in the actual evaluation of the proposals. Moreover, while the subcategories that would amount to the 50% marks allocated for service quality was clearly informed in the pre-bid meeting, during the evaluation of proposals, this total marks allocated to the category was distributed to indefinite subcategories. The criterion used in the evaluation of aforementioned category were not pre informed to the bidders, due to which, some of the bidders were not aware that they had to submit associated information/documents that would allot marks for the category. Owing to this, some of the bidders had lost marks in some categories and as a result limited the equal opportunities given for bidders for a competitive bidding process. Furthermore, since marks were allocated unequally and irregularly, it can be suspected that the parties involved in evaluation process had attempted to give undue advantage for a third party. Also, the “Hajj proposal evaluation guideline” that was later prepared by ministry and used as basis for evaluating the proposals was different from the marking criteria information and guideline provided to the bidders in pre-bid meeting.
In addition to this, the 06 proposals that were disqualified among the 09 bidders that submitted proposals were faultily disqualified according to the information stated in the bid document
Due to these findings and suspicions, the commission requested the ministry to re-evaluate all the proposals regarding the announcement number (IUL)142-C2/1/2017/34 published by the Ministry of Islamic Affairs. the Commission also urged the Ministry to structure a new evaluation committee (excluding ministry staff from the Committee) to re-evaluate the proposals and to carry out the process in compliance with guidelines and information provided to bidders in pre-bid meeting. Furthermore, the Commission also instructed the Ministry to nullify the marking guidelines prepared later by the evaluation committee as it allows undue advantages to third parties.