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Operator that lost tender for Port of Luanda terminal calls for "justice

The operator International Container Terminal Services Inc (ICTSI), which contests the delivery of the terminal management of the Port of Luanda to DP World, assures that it "strictly complied" with all the rules of the tender and asks for "justice" from the authorities.

: Lusa
Lusa  

In a press release issued Sunday by Jornal de Angola, ICTSI says it is "forced" to clarify "indisputable facts" about the tender, in light of "slanderous attempts, totally unacceptable, to tarnish its good name and reputation through false news and wrong pronouncements.

ICTSI, a Philippine operator in the business of managing, operating and developing port terminals, says it "submitted by far the strongest financial and technical proposal" to the Tender Evaluation Commission (CAC).

"ICTSI submitted the strongest technical proposal, and was ranked first or ex-quo with another proposal, as mirrored by the criteria issued by the CAC," the statement read.

The Ministry of Transport (Mintrans) said on Thursday that ICTSI's proposal had "serious deficiencies" and "inconsistent" assumptions, reaffirming that the choice of the DP World bidder "defends the public interest."

The Mintrans statement came a week after it was disclosed that ICTSI filed, in the Supreme Court of Angola, two injunctions challenging the delivery of the management of the Luanda Port terminal to Dubai Ports World (DPW), a multinational based in Dubai.

According to the weekly newspaper Valor Económico, ICTSI referred, in its appeal, to "serious breaches" committed by the CAC and requested the court to "restore the genuine terms of the tender valuing, in full, the bids of competitors and award the terminal concession to the best ranked".

Mintrans understands that ICTSI's allegations that CAC violated the principle of public interest are unfounded, because the State "defined as public interest, in addition to the financial criterion [...] technical criteria of efficiency gains, infrastructure improvement, adoption of international best practices in port management and the increase in handling of the multipurpose terminal.

According to the ministry, the evaluation of the proposals submitted aimed to assess financial and technical aspects, in order to allow choosing the one that best defends the public interest.

ICTSI states that it was "the only bidder that submitted a comprehensive technical plan aimed at improving and transforming the multipurpose terminal into a modern and highly efficient terminal.

ICTSI "strictly complied with all the rules that governed the bidding process.

"It did so in good faith, simply requesting that the rules be followed with the objective of achieving a fair and transparent result, in accordance with good practices and in the interest of the Republic of Angola," the statement said.

The tender for the concession of the Port of Luanda Multipurpose Terminal, announced on December 16, 2019 had nine expressions of interest, with five bids submitted: Sifax Group, Terminal Link/Multiparques (TL-MP), MSC-SAS Shipping Agencies, DPW and ICTSI.

The contract with DP World provides for the concession of the terminal's management until 2040, a deal that includes a global agreement of US$1 billion, over the 20-year concession period, and starts with the payment of US$150 million to the Angolan State for this concession, with the Port of Luanda expected to ensure an annual movement of 700,000 containers.

At the contract signing, on January 25, the Minister of Transport, Ricardo Abreu, noted that the international tender was conducted in a rigorous and transparent manner, despite "some voices that were raised calling into question the smoothness of the process.

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