A member of Kuwait’s parliament has requested all relevant government agencies provide a copy of documents pertaining to the tender process for the five road projects, which Public Works Minister Hossam al-Roumi recommended for cancellation in June.

According to a local media report, MP Khalil Abul demanded copies of the tender file and approval obtained from MPW’s technical committee, Public Authority for Roads and Transport (PART), Finance Ministry, Fatwa and Legislation Department, Central Agency for Public Tenders (CAPT) and State Audit Bureau.

The schemes Al-Roumi recommended for cancellation were:

• Central section of regional road south (RA/242)
• Northern regional road from Al-Mutlaa Future city to future crossroads (RA/243)
• Damascus Street, 5^thRing Road and King Faisal Abdulaziz road (RA/257)
• Northern regional road from crossroad No. 58 to 82 (RA/260)
• Northern regional road from crossroad No. 58 to Salmi border check post (RA/261).

Abul alleged that the move to cancel the contracts was a unilateral decision that disregarded MPW’s technical committee.

Central Agency for Public Tenders (CAPT) completed its evaluation of the bids for each of the five projects in the period from 2017 to 2018.

Local firm Combined Group Contracting submitted the lowest bids for both RA/242 and RA/257, while a joint venture of Italy’s Itinera and local Yousef Yahya Almatrouk submitted the lowest bid for RA/243.

A joint venture of local contracting firms Abraaj Energy and Al-Ayuni Contracting submitted the lowest bids, at KD73.8m and KD91.5m, for RA/260 and RA/261, respectively.

Al-Roumi said in the June that he suspended the road tenders “to protect public funds as well as to achieve transparency, equality and freedom of competition amongst bidders.”