I refer to the letter Open tender system must be seen to be open .

‘Ex-JKR Engineer' is barking up the wrong tree. I agree with most of what he said but who should primarily be responsible for the debacle?

What was missing from his tirade was the role of the consultants.

From my days in the service, the consultants are well-paid especially if the project is large using World Bank, Asian Development Bank or Japanese Government (Jica) loans.

This is because of their expertise and because it is expected that they will give independent, expert and unbiased assessment in the areas of design, tender evaluation and award.

They are supposed to be free of emotions in any given situation, free from political considerations and generally act in a fair and unequivocal manner.

Their tasks are usually very demanding and require intellectual and moral courage to make firm and righteous decisions without fear or favour.

If what ‘Ex-JKR Engineer' said is true, then the consultant has done a great disservice to the water project and may be guilty of grave professional misconduct.

That he has accepted and went on to evaluate the lowest bidder even though there was no submission of a conforming bid shows negligence or worse still, a conspiracy with intent to favour the lowest bidder.

The consultant cannot be unaware the fraudulent and corrupt practices of one of the lowest bidder's partners because the news of the investigation of the criminal activities have been reported on all the main Japanese newspapers.

The government of Japan was concerned enough to set up information ‘hot-lines' comprising telephone and fax numbers and e-mail addresses for members of the public to provide information on bidding irregularities in Jica-funded projects.

As a Japanese company and one that had done many Jica projects, the consultant would have known and acted to disqualify the bidder on this count.

The consultant has a moral duty of care to perform for the client, ie, the government of Malaysia. The consultant has clearly failed in his service to the Malaysian government and his conduct should be subject to greater scrutiny.

If the Government is not satisfied with the performance of the consultant, it is incumbent on the government to appoint a third party consultant to re-evaluate the findings of the first consultant.

Therefore it is important not only to vet the tender process but also to vet the work of the consultants in the evaluation of the tenders.

If we are vigilant in all this, we may just get an open and transparent tender system that would save money and weed out the corrupt.