Korean consultant barred from participating in IT Park project

Tokyo: Korean government barred its key consultancy firm shortlisted by Pakistan’s ministry of information technology from participating in setting up around $90 million of IT Park in Islamabad, sources said on Monday.

Fair Trade Commission of Korea prohibited Sunjin Engineering and Architecture Co., Ltd. from participating in any of Economic Development Cooperation Framework (EDCF) arrangement projects of Korean Exim Bank for three months up to 30 March, a document available with The News showed.

The evaluation committee of the ministry of information technology last year shortlisted four companies, including Sunjin, in order of merit and sought from them request for proposals out of the 11 companies proposed by the Export-Import Bank of Korea, the lender of the IT park.

The commission found malpractice of contract as ground for the sanction, the document revealed.

Sources said there should not be any further delay in selection of consultant for the project as that would result in increase of the project cost. They further said since the government took the loan it should take decision on the consultant selection rather than Korean Exim Bank.

In March 2017, Korean Exim Bank agreed to loan $76.3 million to Pakistan to set up an information technology park in Islamabad under its EDCF arrangement. Total project cost was estimated at $88.383 million.

The multi-purpose IT Park will spread over an area of 45 acres and accommodate more than 100 companies, have daycare centres and other facilities.

Feasibility study of the project has already been completed and the process for selection of consultant for designing and construction supervision was initiated last year.

Under Korean Exim Bank’s procedure, the ministry of information technology shortlisted consultants from a list provided by the bank.

The sources said Sunjin ranked third by the evaluation committee of the IT ministry. “During bidding evaluation the consortium that ranked 3rd during pre-qualification has been awarded the project,” a source, privy to the matter, said.

Sunjin got an average score of 69.06 from the committee as opposed to Junglim (72.48) and Samoo (72.33). The Fair Trade Commission of Korea also imposed sanction on Daeyoung Ubitech due to bidding corruption. Sources said the company is also one of the winning consortium members.

Sources said the ministry still desires to award the project to the same consortium, which is beyond understanding. “It seems some officials may have some vested interest in awarding the project to the consortium,” a source said.