"The Ministry of Shipping has not made any such amendment. Any kind of violation of any rule or circular in processing tenders, as expressed in the news, will be examined by the ministry on receipt of the proposal relating to it," the rejoinder said.

Our reply
The Chittagong Port Authority under the shipping ministry issued addendum number 3 to the pre-selected bidders by fax transmitted late night on March 13. The tender was scheduled to be opened on March 20. There was no way that any company which is outside of Bangladesh could have responded to these changes in such a short time.

The changes made by this amendment include: Bill of Quantity (page 6-5), Specifications of Tender (Article 10.8 (b) of Section 8, Drawing No 3C of Section 9, and CDA Land to be filled with required quantity of 1,000,000 cubic meters of soil.

Regulation No 15(2) of the Public Procurement Regulation (PPR) dictates that any amendment in tender specification must be accompanied by commensurate time extension to enable fair competition.

We question how the ministry can claim that there was no change in view of the above fax.