Alleged procedural irregularities hold up $ 20 million court automation system project

By Hiran H.Senewiratne

The Ministry of Justice’s US$ 20 million Court Automation System/project has come to a standstill due to alleged procedural irregularities in awarding the Justice Ministry tender to select a suitable company to design, supply, implement and maintain the system. Initially, there were plans to automate 100 court houses, including the Supreme Court, Appeal Court, Commercial High Courts, Juvenile Courts and Magistrates Courts in the country. Later, the entire court system was to be automated involving the hearing process and related activities with key modules of e-filing, case management and transcription along with other related sub-modules, informed sources said.

The Minister of Justice called for suitable tenders and published them in national newspapers with terms and conditions. But when selecting them the ministry had allegedly deviated from their original scope. Some of the stipulated terms were apparently overlooked.  The first phase (award of contract) of the project was expected to be completed by end 2021 as it had to utilize the budgetary allocation of Rs. 500 million before the end of the financial year, by making the 10 per cent advance payment to the selected bidder, according to the documents.

Terms were hurriedly amended allowing foreign companies to participate as joint venture partners with Sri Lankan companies, local bidders alleged. Under this project tenders were called for the Pre-Qualification stage and the Detail Bidding stage. The Ministry of Justice had published a newspaper advertisement on April 11, 2021 under the heading ‘Invitation for Pre-Qualification (PQ) of Information Systems’.

Prequalification documents clearly mentioned (clause 2.5 in page 7) that applicants of ‘only Sri Lankan firms’ are allowed to submit applications for the tender with special emphasis for development of solutions from scratch. The experience criteria given in the PQ document categorically mentioned that the experience in Information System Design as Prime Contractor, JV member or Sub Contractor for the last 5 years is essential.Another eligibility criterion was the successful completion of a minimum number of three ICT projects each valued at Rs. 100 million within the last five years.

The original closing date of May 10, 2021 was postponed to May 25 and again to June 3, 2021 while the closing time was fixed at 3 pm at the request of the bidders, the ministry said.Thirteen companies submitted PQ applications before the deadline (3 pm on June 3). One applicant, a joint venture of two local firms and a foreign company, submitted their PQ application a few minutes after the deadline.

Responding to this complaint, the ministry stated that the applicants in question whose submissions were received between 3.05 pm – 3.33 pm were accepted as they reported a technical issue on email submission at 2.56 pm.Having verified the technical issue with a technical expert team of the ICTA the application had been accepted, the ministry clarified. In order to maintain the openness and transparency of the process, a detailed response submission report with actual receipt times was sent to all applicants, upon conclusion of accepting the pre-qualification responses, it added.