The new BTCL authority in a sudden move waived a penalty imposed earlier on Chinese telecom vendor Huawei Technologies for their failure to supply five power generators required for a next generation telecom network project.Although the Tk 14.86 lakh penalty is nothing in terms of an amount to the Chinese telecom giant, BTCL's soft corner for Huawei however makes the move questionable, as the penalty had been imposed in line with the deal signed between the two companies.The penalty waiver was granted by the newly appointed BTCL Managing Director SM Khabiruzzaman, as no penalty imposed on any vendor can be waived without the managing director's consent. BTCL sources said the issue of the waiver was not even discussed in any meeting of the company's board of directors.In a letter issued on April 12 this year to Huawei, Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Ltd (BTCL) said the company itself is now taking steps to procure the five diesel engine generators, which according to the deal Huawei was supposed to supply. And on top of that no penalty will be imposed on Huawei for its failure to supply the generators on time, the letter added. In September 2008, BTCL issued a show cause notice to Huawei asking it to explain why the Chinese company should not be penalised, to which Huawei failed to respond satisfactorily, prompting the BTCL authority to impose the Tk 14.86 lakh penalty.Talking to The Daily Star, a former BTCL official said the decision of imposing the penalty on Huawei was taken as the Chinese company had repeatedly failed to supply the generators. He said the penalty was imposed in line with the signed agreement, to recover liquidity damage incurred by BTCL.New BTCL Managing Director SM Khabiruzzaman however told The Daily Star that there had been no decision of imposing a penalty on Huawei. He said now BTCL will buy the generators itself, after getting back the procurement money from Huawei.Ashok Kumar Mondal, director (procurement) of BTCL, said penalties are usually imposed on vendors who fail to supply equipment within a project timeframe. In case of Huawei no delay has happened yet, he added.The generators are required for BTCL's project titled 'Supply, installation, testing and commissioning of IP-based NGN TAX in Dhaka, Khulna, Kushtia, Barisal and Sylhet on a turn-key basis'. Huawei and BTTB, the predecessor of BTCL, had signed a $2.42 million deal in December 2006 for the project which was supposed to be completed by May 2007. But the project still remains incomplete as Huawei failed to supply five French-made SDMO diesel engine generators, one of the major requirements of the project.The anomalies in the equipment supply part of the deal between BTCL and Huawei was first uncovered through an investigation by a taskforce of the now-defunct National Coordination Committee on Corruption and Serious Crimes (NCC) under the immediate past caretaker government, which also found involvement of some BTCL officials in the irregularities including repeatedly changing clauses of the deal agreement.According to the deal, Huawei was supposed to install French-made SDMO brand diesel generators. But changes were brought to the agreement allowing the Chinese company to supply Spanish-made PRAMAC generators through a local vendor Rahimafrooz, as Huawei had claimed that the French manufacturer of the SDMO generators had been acquired by another company which had stopped manufacturing the specific type of generators, according to the NCC taskforce report.Huawei somehow persuaded BTTB high-ups to amend the deal the two companies had signed, so the Chinese company could supply PRAMAC generators, the report added.The investigation report also said BTCL, which was BTTB back then, however denied receiving any PRAMAC generator, claiming that bringing such changes in the specifications of the equipment to be supplied, is not allowed under the Public Procurement Rules (PPR).The Billing of Quantity (BOQ) Committee also repeatedly denied accepting Huawei's proposal to amend the deal, the investigation report added. But the taskforce report includes a document dated December 24, 2007, which shows that BTTB's erstwhile chairman M Moudud Chowdhury, and erstwhile director (planning and development) M Shamsul Alam agreed to amend the deal.Meantime, Huawei 'secretly' signed a deal with Rahimafrooz for supplying the low-priced PRAMAC generators, the task force report said. Huawei, however, even failed to supply those Spanish-made PRAMAC generators on time. According to another letter issued by the erstwhile project director of the then BTTB on December 24, 2008, BTTB had changed relevant clauses of the contract in order to accommodate the Chinese contractor's change of mind about which kind of generators it would supply."We understand that action should be taken against the contractor within the purview of the contract," the letter added in light of Huawei's failure to supply even the generators of the changed category.Talking to The Daily Star recently, Ansar Uddin, managing director of Electro Mechanical Service Ltd, the local agent for SDMO brand generators in Bangladesh, said it is true that the company which used to manufacture SDMOs, was acquired by another company, but supply of that brand of generators never stopped even for a day. He said SDMO brand generators are still being sold in Bangladesh. Huawei however claims that it received a regret letter from SDMO's local agent, which said the required generators were not in supply. But, Ansar Uddin emphatically contradicted Huawei's claim saying, "I am the person to issue that kind of a letter. But as far as my knowledge goes, I never issued any kind of regret letter." HUAWEI'S VERSION Thong Poh Wah, Vice Director (PR) Asia Pacific Marketing of Huawei Technologies, told The Daily Star that his company was unable to provide the French-made SDMO diesel engine generators because the manufacturing company had been acquired by another company, which subsequently stopped manufacturing SDMO generators of the specifications mentioned in the contract. "Such information was not made available to us during the time of bidding as this bidding was re-tendered several times for more than one year. So that we proposed BTCL the new brand of DEG [diesel engine generator] with better specification as per the contract, once we got such information," Wah said in a written statement.However, BTCL was taking too long a time to decide on the issue, Wah said adding, when Huawei proposed to substitute with PRAMAC diesel engine generators, BTCL decided to procure the generators on its own instead.The decision was reflected in the inclusion of an additional provision in the agreement, Wah went on saying, Huawei did not fail to supply the PRAMAC generators, rather it refrained from supplying those because BTCL had decided to make the procurement itself.
Defaulting Huawei forgiven
The new BTCL authority in a sudden move waived a penalty imposed earlier on Chinese telecom vendor Huawei Technologies for their failure to supply five power generators required for a next generation telecom network project.Although the Tk 14.86 lakh penalty is nothing in terms of an amount to the Chinese telecom giant, BTCL's soft corner for Huawei however makes the move questionable, as the penalty had been imposed in line with the deal signed between the two companies.The penalty waiver was granted by the newly appointed BTCL Managing Director SM Khabiruzzaman, as no penalty imposed on any vendor can be waived without the managing director's consent. BTCL sources said the issue of the waiver was not even discussed in any meeting of the company's board of directors.In a letter issued on April 12 this year to Huawei, Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Ltd (BTCL) said the company itself is now taking steps to procure the five diesel engine generators, which according to the deal Huawei was supposed to supply. And on top of that no penalty will be imposed on Huawei for its failure to supply the generators on time, the letter added. In September 2008, BTCL issued a show cause notice to Huawei asking it to explain why the Chinese company should not be penalised, to which Huawei failed to respond satisfactorily, prompting the BTCL authority to impose the Tk 14.86 lakh penalty.Talking to The Daily Star, a former BTCL official said the decision of imposing the penalty on Huawei was taken as the Chinese company had repeatedly failed to supply the generators. He said the penalty was imposed in line with the signed agreement, to recover liquidity damage incurred by BTCL.New BTCL Managing Director SM Khabiruzzaman however told The Daily Star that there had been no decision of imposing a penalty on Huawei. He said now BTCL will buy the generators itself, after getting back the procurement money from Huawei.Ashok Kumar Mondal, director (procurement) of BTCL, said penalties are usually imposed on vendors who fail to supply equipment within a project timeframe. In case of Huawei no delay has happened yet, he added.The generators are required for BTCL's project titled 'Supply, installation, testing and commissioning of IP-based NGN TAX in Dhaka, Khulna, Kushtia, Barisal and Sylhet on a turn-key basis'. Huawei and BTTB, the predecessor of BTCL, had signed a $2.42 million deal in December 2006 for the project which was supposed to be completed by May 2007. But the project still remains incomplete as Huawei failed to supply five French-made SDMO diesel engine generators, one of the major requirements of the project.The anomalies in the equipment supply part of the deal between BTCL and Huawei was first uncovered through an investigation by a taskforce of the now-defunct National Coordination Committee on Corruption and Serious Crimes (NCC) under the immediate past caretaker government, which also found involvement of some BTCL officials in the irregularities including repeatedly changing clauses of the deal agreement.According to the deal, Huawei was supposed to install French-made SDMO brand diesel generators. But changes were brought to the agreement allowing the Chinese company to supply Spanish-made PRAMAC generators through a local vendor Rahimafrooz, as Huawei had claimed that the French manufacturer of the SDMO generators had been acquired by another company which had stopped manufacturing the specific type of generators, according to the NCC taskforce report.Huawei somehow persuaded BTTB high-ups to amend the deal the two companies had signed, so the Chinese company could supply PRAMAC generators, the report added.The investigation report also said BTCL, which was BTTB back then, however denied receiving any PRAMAC generator, claiming that bringing such changes in the specifications of the equipment to be supplied, is not allowed under the Public Procurement Rules (PPR).The Billing of Quantity (BOQ) Committee also repeatedly denied accepting Huawei's proposal to amend the deal, the investigation report added. But the taskforce report includes a document dated December 24, 2007, which shows that BTTB's erstwhile chairman M Moudud Chowdhury, and erstwhile director (planning and development) M Shamsul Alam agreed to amend the deal.Meantime, Huawei 'secretly' signed a deal with Rahimafrooz for supplying the low-priced PRAMAC generators, the task force report said. Huawei, however, even failed to supply those Spanish-made PRAMAC generators on time. According to another letter issued by the erstwhile project director of the then BTTB on December 24, 2008, BTTB had changed relevant clauses of the contract in order to accommodate the Chinese contractor's change of mind about which kind of generators it would supply."We understand that action should be taken against the contractor within the purview of the contract," the letter added in light of Huawei's failure to supply even the generators of the changed category.Talking to The Daily Star recently, Ansar Uddin, managing director of Electro Mechanical Service Ltd, the local agent for SDMO brand generators in Bangladesh, said it is true that the company which used to manufacture SDMOs, was acquired by another company, but supply of that brand of generators never stopped even for a day. He said SDMO brand generators are still being sold in Bangladesh. Huawei however claims that it received a regret letter from SDMO's local agent, which said the required generators were not in supply. But, Ansar Uddin emphatically contradicted Huawei's claim saying, "I am the person to issue that kind of a letter. But as far as my knowledge goes, I never issued any kind of regret letter." HUAWEI'S VERSION Thong Poh Wah, Vice Director (PR) Asia Pacific Marketing of Huawei Technologies, told The Daily Star that his company was unable to provide the French-made SDMO diesel engine generators because the manufacturing company had been acquired by another company, which subsequently stopped manufacturing SDMO generators of the specifications mentioned in the contract. "Such information was not made available to us during the time of bidding as this bidding was re-tendered several times for more than one year. So that we proposed BTCL the new brand of DEG [diesel engine generator] with better specification as per the contract, once we got such information," Wah said in a written statement.However, BTCL was taking too long a time to decide on the issue, Wah said adding, when Huawei proposed to substitute with PRAMAC diesel engine generators, BTCL decided to procure the generators on its own instead.The decision was reflected in the inclusion of an additional provision in the agreement, Wah went on saying, Huawei did not fail to supply the PRAMAC generators, rather it refrained from supplying those because BTCL had decided to make the procurement itself.
এতে সদস্যতা:
মন্তব্যগুলি পোস্ট করুন (Atom)
কোন মন্তব্য নেই:
একটি মন্তব্য পোস্ট করুন