Kuwait’s Interior Ministry has prequalified three US firms and their local agents for the contract to supply a DNA database for the first phase of the ministry’s project to deploy and use advanced DNA forensics analysis.

The prequalified firms and their local agents are:

• Sorenson Forensics (US) / Advanced Technology Company (local)
• Bode Cellmark (US) / Bader Sultan Company (local)
• Thermofisher (US) / Energy & Environment Company (local)

Submission of offers closes on 2 August.

It is understood that the project aligns with the state’s overall strategy to boost internal security.

Kuwait’s Defence Ministry invited firms for a contract to rehabilitate and upgrade its data centre room a year ago.

The state is understood to have launched a rapid review and overhaul of its security and surveillance systems in the wake of the suicide bombing on 26 June 2015 at a mosque, which claimed 27 lives.

The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) also indicated in April an intention to issue tenders for two contracts designed to reinforce Kuwait’s air defence facilities. One of the tenders entails the construction of two air defence sites and one central information coordination building.