After repeated delays, the Macau government yesterday officially awarded a controversial 4.69 billion pataca contract for its showcase light-rail project to Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.
Macau's Transportation Infrastructure Office, known as GIT, has been vetting bids since April from three competing consortiums seeking to supply trains and related systems for the project, which has a total budget of 7.5 billion patacas.
Mitsubishi beat two rival bids by a partnership between Canada's Bombardier and China Road and Bridge Corporation (at 4.57 billion patacas) and a partnership between Germany's Siemens and China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation or CCECC (at 6.28 billion patacas).
According to the official government tender, the winning bid should have been announced by last July with rail services operational by August 2014.
However, the tender process dragged on and was tinged with controversy after Macau legislator Jose Coutinho made repeated allegations that the GIT had pre-selected Mitsubishi as the winner in July.
The GIT repeatedly rejected the allegations, calling them 'untrue'.
In an August statement posted on its website, GIT said: 'The tender evaluation is handled by an independent committee consisting of members from different departments. In addition, the tender evaluation process is in accordance with relevant legal procedures and guidelines provided by the Commission Against Corruption.'