The joint venture that submitted the lowest offer for the passenger support building at Kuwait International Airport (KIA) has yet to receive the official award letter from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

”Hopefully it will be signed this January,” a source close to the project tells MEED.

A joint venture comprising Turkey’s Cengiz Insaat and local First Kuwaiti General Trading & Contracting submitted the lowest bid, at $174m, for the project.

The newly installed Minister of Public Works Ali al-Omair has also confirmed, in a local  media report in late December, that the bids ”have been forwarded to the State Audit Bureau and other oversight authorities to ensure completion of the required documents.”

The passenger support building will provide an additional capacity of up to 4.5 million passengers annually to support the existing terminal, Terminal 1, until Terminal 2, whose construction will be overseen by the Public Works MInistry (MPW), becomes operational by 2020. The tender for the passenger support building has specified that the facility is to become operational in 450 days, or about 15-18 months, from the date of contract signing. The building will be located next to the existing air cargo facilities, and roughly 1 kilometre away from the existing terminal.

The contract award for Terminal 2, however, has been delayed. A joint venture of Turkey’s Limak and local Kharafi National was named the lowest bidder, submitting an offer of $4.3bn, for the Terminal 2 project in August. However, the formal award of the project has been delayed following allegations made by some members of Kuwait’s parliament that administrative and financial irregularities have been committed by the MPW during the tendering and award process.

A source familiar with the Terminal 2 project, however, tells MEED that once the ongoing review of the Audit Bureau of the Terminal 2 contract is completed, the project should proceed to the contract signing phase. It is understood that the project can proceed without approval from the parliament. The time required by the Audit Bureau to complete its task, however, remains unclear.

If the process follows Kuwait’s standard award procedure, the Terminal 2 contract, once reviewed by the Audit Bureau will then be submitted for approval to the ministers council prior to being signed by the Public Works minister.

However, Al-Omair in December also reportedly alluded to referring proposals to the Public Anti-Corruption Authority (Paca). The bill for the establishment of the anti-corruption entity was approved by the cabinet on 21 December. While referring proposals to the Paca could potentially help promote transparency in the state’s award process, it could also potentially further prolong the process.