Contracts with the companies under the Bangladeshi MP arrested on alleged charges of bribery and human trafficking will not be extended as the Central Agency for Public Tenders persistently refuses to grant permission, Al-Qabas daily reported.
According to informed sources, the agency rejected a request by one of the ministries involved in security to allow an extension of a contract for cleaning services and waste transportation for the Ministry’s headquarters in Farwaniya Governorate valued of up to KD600,000 for a period of six months.
CAPT continues to refuse requests to do business with the alleged tainted companies to close the file of the Bangladeshi MP’s company at the Public Authority for Manpower following accusations against his companies for human trafficking and bribing government leaders to obtain many “no objection” visas, so he could bring in workers within his community.
The daily said, quoting sources, that requests were coming from four government agencies that had contracts with the companies under the Bangladeshi MP earlier, with the majority of requests for extension was related to the cleaning contracts and suspended due to the circumstances of coronavirus.
The major reason for asking requests while the contracts were close to ending was the difficulty in contracting another company at present due to the lengthy documentation process for launching a new tender. A number of government agencies are without cleaners due to non-renewal of their contracts. The other reason cited is that due to the coronavirus pandemic conditions, it is tough to replace one company with another, and thus government buildings may remain without cleaners.
There is also the problem associated with the suspension of recruitment of new workers due to the suspension of flights from 34 countries that has also the issue of leaving those workers abroad stranded causing a lack of manpower for the cleaning companies.
Moreover, ending the cleaning contracts with the four Bangladeshi MP companies may raise the prices of government tenders for hiring cleaners, due to the exit of a major player in this sector who was competing at the lowest prices, sources said.
The daily pointed out that the suspension of the business of the Bangladeshi MP’s companies and freezing his finances made him unable to pay his workers, which will force them to leave or become unemployed and subsequently turn into marginal workers.