Taking up two separate pleas filed by Indonesian Perum Peruri and British De La Rue to review the earlier decision, Bhattarai took the decision after the ministry could not verify the charge against the French security printer through diplomatic channels. [break]
The Indonesian and British security printers had filed the complaints against the July 7 decision under the Public Procurement Act, accusing the French security printer of furnishing fake user certificate of personalized printer from PARK and OPC.
They had alleged that the PARK and OPC personalized printers were not used in Korea and Ghana, something contrary to the claim of Oberthur.
“We inquired to find out the authenticity of the issues raised in the complaints through our embassies in Seoul and New Delhi. We also contacted Korean Embassy and Japanese Embassy. But no one has replied to us to date,” said Mukti Nath Bhatta, the chief of protocol.
The ministry had contacted Korean government, government of Ghana and Libya through its missions in Seoul and Delhi to find out fact.
“As we could not get information for and against the previous decision, there is no need to cancel it (to award the tender to Oberthur),” Bhatta added.
The ministry had selected Oberthur among four bidders after it found the offer of the French printer most competitive. It has offered to supply per MRP at US$ 3.59.
According to Bhatta, the Indonesian and British security printers can lodge complaint against the ministry´s decision at the Office of the Public Procurement Monitoring.
The MRP tender has already landed in the Public Accounts Committee of parliament. The ministry on Sunday sent all the documents related to the tender to the committee for investigation.
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