Engineers of the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) are still awaiting for a response to a letter sent to the Chairman of the Cabinet Appointed Negotiating Committee (CANC), S. Amarasekera, over what they say are efforts being made to remove a clause about the eligibility of bidders in the Request For Proposals (RFP) issued for the Colombo South Terminal project in February 2007.

When contacted by The Sunday Times FT this past week, Mr. Amarasekera said he has not seen the letter dated August 19 and refused to comment further. The clause states 'a bidder or where the bidder is the consortium, all members must not have been found conclusive by any court of law to have engaged in anti competition practice.'

The letter alleges there is a 'sinister move mooted by some bidders to exclude or modify the above clause in order to manipulate the bidding procedure.' The clause as explained by the engineers is also needed to secure and safeguard the interests of a particular country/port to prevent port operators adhering to corrupt business practices from cartels.