Govt completes financial evaluation for the implementation of the electronic driving licence project

THE Department of Transport Management has completed the evaluation of financial proposals submitted by three shortlisted firms for the implementation of the electronic driving licence project and has forwarded the evaluation report to the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the financer of the project. Based on ADB’s opinion, the government will select one among the three bidders to implement the $2.3-million project. The bidders are India’s Madras Security Printers, Spain’s Indra Sistemas SA, and Malaysia’s IRIS Corporation Berhad. The project aims to issue electronic driving license and blue books to vehicle owners. However, the shortlisting of the Indian firm, which has “controversial records” in India, has invited controversy in the project. Complaints have been filed at department and the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), stating the department has been preparing to award the project to Madras Security Printers, which according to the complaints, has been blacklisted in India. The complaint states the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDIA) has blacklisted the firm for selling personal data collected for biometric identity card to private companies and sub-contracting the projects. Department officials, however, said they were not aware whether the Indian firm had been banned from working in India. “It was shortlisted based on evaluation of the technical proposal,” said an official of the department. “We have sent the evaluation report of financial bids along with the complaints received to the ADB,” said Sudarshan Prasad Dhakal, director general of the department. “The contract will be awarded to one of the three firms based on ADB’s recommendation.” Leaving aside the controversy, the Indian firm is one of the favourites to win the contract based on its technical proposal although it is the second lowest bidder in financial terms, a member of the bid evaluation committee said. “Its chance looks stronger as the financial proposal holds only 20 percent of weightage in the evaluation,” he said. As per the companies’ financial proposals submitted on July 17, Malaysia’s IRIS Corporation has bid the lowest $1.16 million. Madras Security Printers stood second with $1.5 million and Spanish Indra Sistemas’ quoted the highest at $2.1 million to undertake the project. The evaluation committee member said the Indian firm has received good marks in the evaluation of the technical bids carried out about five months ago. The technical proposal and its marks hold 80 percent weightage under the Quality and Cost Based Selection (QCBS) method. The bid evaluation was carried out based on the QCBS method. Under the method, a bidder posting the highest score will be awarded the contract. The bid evaluation team member, however, did not divulge the marks bagged by the three competing firms. The government has forwarded the evaluation report to the Asian Development Bank, the financer of the project