Kathmandu. The government has cancelled the tender process for the Sunkoshi Marine Project. While the technical proposal of the project has already been opened, the financial proposal was to be opened on November 30. However, the government has decided to cancel the contract process due to legal and procedural errors during the tender process.

The government had amended the Public Procurement Regulations on August 3. In the amended regulations, the provision of awarding contracts on the basis of evaluation of technical and financial proposals was added.

In the amended regulations, Rule 26A has been added after Rule 26 of the main Regulations. According to the provisions of Section 10 (2) of the Public Procurement Act, the technical and financial proposals for complex construction works and large construction works with an approved cost estimate of more than Rs. 1.50 billion have to be mentioned in the tender documents.

However, even after the amendment of the regulations, the project had opened the technical proposal as per the old provisions on August 26. The government has canceled the contract process of the Sunkoshi Marine Project after it was found that the contract process was not forwarded as per the amended legal provisions and the necessary process was not completed.

Director General of the Irrigation Department Dinesh Rajauria and Project Director Krishna Rijal had reached the Prime Minister’s Office on Friday after being summoned to inquire about the progress of the project. Both of them were earlier in contact with the office but the office had taken the help of the police to get in touch after they switched off their phones and became incommunicado lately.