Photo: Collected-
Metropolis Desk-
Biman lost more than Tk 1,000 crore in 10 years as a result of hiring a vendor in violation of procurement guidelines for its online ticket sales and reservation services.
Due to its low price, Texas-based company Sabre GLBL Inc. was given the contract. The auditor general’s office discovered that the financial evaluation report underrepresented the cost estimates Sabre GLBL Inc. provided versus its supplied services.
The financial proposal does not address many aspects of Biman’s relationship with Sabre, and the auditors estimate that Biman boards 18.3 lakh passengers annually at a large financial expense to the carrier.
For transferring data from SITA’s system to Sabre’s system, the business cost Biman $40,000 (Tk 42 lakh).
Auditors looked into the contract’s conditions and discovered that there were just three bidders. Costs were calculated using the minimum number of passengers, which increased dramatically once the system went operational.
The contract solely specifies the per-ticket booking fee; it does not refer to the anticipated sales volume.
According to the audit study, expenses might total Tk 1,019 crore after ten years. As a provider of GDS services, Sabre is prohibited by public procurement regulations from tendering for services that are tangentially related to them.
The managing director of Biman promises to investigate and respond to the accusations. The country general manager and CEO of Sabre have not yet been informed.
