More importantly, the entire bidding process for leasing the aircraft for a period of six months and the way NAC authorities managed to bypass the four shortlisted bidders and directly negotiate with the North American Airlines has raised some unanswered questions.
To begin with, the state carrier sidelined the qualifying bidders and initiate direct negotiations with the company, which was introduced by the bidding agents. All four local companies (Columbus, Unicorn Traders A, NAA-ICTC and NAA-Delta) that were shortlisted by the NAC technical committee were bidding for the same airline company – North American Airlines.
“We found the documents submitted by the agents suspicious as all papers had the same signature; so we contacted the company directly,” explained Raju KC, spokesperson of the NAC.
But since all the four were bidding for North American Airlines itself, it is only obvious that the documents would be signed by the same authority, the bidders point out. The submitted document has been signed by the vice-president, passenger sales, Robert M Perry, North American Airlines. (Myrepublica.com is in possession of the bidding document submitted to the NAC).
Secondly, NAC said Friday that the agreement could not be reached as the North American Airlines has now asked the NAC to bear the rotation cost of its crew as well. The negotiated cost $3690/flight hour did not include the cost of the crew.
However, the bid document floated by the NAC clearly spells that the sealed offer should include: ACMI rate per flight hour up to 275 flight hours inclusive of lease of aircraft, cockpit crew, minimum cabin crew, required engineer and technicians, all maintenance, crew hotel cost, crew per diems, crew transportation, crew medical insurance, all insurance except passenger and cargo, and other costs if any. NAC authorities have not yet explained as to why, in the first place, they entertained this price although it went against their own requirement.
The minimum guarantee sought by NAA is 275 flight hours (FH) per month.
According to sources, approximately $300/FH out of the quoted $3690 figure is allocated as commission amount for the local agents in Nepal and in the US. This amounts to $82,500 ($300x275) outright saving per month. On the other hand, the cost of the crew for stay in Nepal, which has to be borne by the NAC, will not exceed $80 per day per crew member, going by the rates offered by the five star hotels in the valley. By that token, even if the NAC pays for eight crew members, it will have to pay only $19,200 ($80x8x30) in a month. By this calculation, the question arises where the remaining $63,300 per month is going?
In the 2001 Lauda Air scam, the authorities concerned were charged for "corruption and irregularities" amounting to $5.11 million. The needle of suspicion then arose because the amount agreed per hour along with guaranteed number of FH was deemed very high by the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee. This was in addition to the Lauda aircraft not meeting one of the basic criteria: it had to be less than eight years. Lauda was at least 12 years in operation when the (R)NAC leased it.
Following the tender notice, first published on January 27 and later on March 12, the NAC received bids from 20 local firms. Out of them, 12 firms which were representing UK-based Astraeus Airways did not qualify as it did not meet the requirement of the lease aircraft "to be less than 15 years of age from the date of manufacture at the time of delivery". Two other firms (from Ireland and Finland) did not qualify as they did not submit ferry cost. Out of the remaining four firms, three did not include the cost of the crew. Only NAA-Delta included the rotation cost of the crew and thus became the highest bidder.
NAC is in a bind. The institution now has to either call for re-bid or negotiate with the highest bidder.
akanshya@myrepublica.com
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