L&T complains about Leighton
Larsen & Toubro has made a formal complaint to ONGC over Leighton Welspun's winning bid for the HRP-II (Heera Redevelopment) three-well platform project.
"L&T is saying there was a discrepancy in Leighton's bid," says a source. "They have asked the Independent External Monitors to investigate.
This week the IEM will call ONGC together with L&T and Leighton and decide." Leighton’s $141.79m bid was marginally lower than L&T's bid of $141.93m when price bids were opened on July 9.
L&T argues Leighton miscalculated the Service Tax part of its bid and that's why it won," he adds. Four others also bid for the HRP-III project when technical and price bids were first submitted on May 17: AFCONS, ABG Shipyard, Abu Dhabi-based NPCC and J.
Ray McDermott. "I don't think L&T will succeed with its complaint," says one.
ONGC introduced the IEM complaints procedure in 2006 to resolve disputes for contracts with a value of more than Rs150cr ($27m).