Sept 14, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka's top law official has begun probing a complaint of anti-competitive practices against one of the main bidders to build and operate a container terminal in the planned new deep-draft port next to Colombo, officials said. Hyundai Engineering Construction of Korea made the lowest bid at 36 billion rupees followed by China Harbour Engineering Co with a bid of 61 billion and Korea's Hanjing Heavy Industries which made a bid of 76 billion rupees. The Attorney-General's Department is looking into the complaint against the bidder, Hutchison Port Holdings, one of the world's top port operators, of having been involved in anti-competition litigation in Indonesia.
This was after the technical evaluation committee handling the Colombo South Port project received a complaint against HPH and referred it to the AG's department.
The complaint said HPH was not qualified to bid as the bidding rules disqualify any company found guilty of anti-competitive practices.
According to the complaint HPH subsidiaries operating ports in Indonesia had been found guilty of anti-competitive practices by that country's supreme court.
HPH is one of the contenders in the bids to build and operate the first container terminal in the n
