What an interesting find! From the mrbrown show, I got to know that the Ministry of Home Affairs-Singapore Police Force has recently posted an ITQ for “Supply and delivery of superior grade durian”. The total weight of durians to be supplied is, believe it or not, 1200kg – that’s more than a tonne!
The ITQ HOMSPFETQ0700100 has already closed on 9 July 2007 11:59PM (SGT). Delivery date is set at 13 July 2007. For those who are interested in following the progress of this ITQ (yeah, can’t wait to see which fortunate durian uncle gets awarded), simply follow these easy steps:
- Browse to http://www.gebiz.gov.sg
- Look out for Past Opportunities in the left menu. Under it, click Tenders & Quotations.
- In the Search for dropdown list, select ITQ/ITT No. Then enter the ITQ number HOMSPFETQ07001000 in the text field beside it.
- Then click the Search button beside.
- From the search results, simply click on the hyperlink to view the details of this ITQ.
May the best durian uncle win! 
Latest Update (22 July 2007)
My heartiest congratulations to 717 Trading for being awarded the tender at SGD8,400. (btw, I didn’t know that superior grade durians can come so cheap at S$7 per kg)
The “awards” tab said that the tender was not awarded. It is a really wierd tender, never had I seen a tender document that is only 2 pages. I tend to think either the officer that offered the tender was trying to be funny, or he is a newbie taken for a ride by his seniors.
Another anomaly is the absence of the most favourite clause in their tender documents – “including, but not limited to”. Also noticeably missing is the warranty clause (wait the policemen eat already got diarrhoea how?).
Yep, the ITQ has yet to be awarded as of now. Good thing is that the status of the ITQ is currently “Closed” and not “Cancelled”. This means the steering committee could be cracking their heads now to decide the winner.
Hey, I have some idea for this tender. MINDEF was once my client and each unit does have their welfare fund (that can derive from some of the certifications the unit pursue). So some may have a buffet lunch once in a few months – something that is different from the ordinary camp food. In that case of ITQ, my guess is that as welfare, they are giving their people durians to eat in a regular basis.
But you can’t really send someone from inside to buy that much durians. There could be a “kick back” corruption potential. (Durian sellers pass cash to the point of contact to win deals). Hence they must tender it out.
What amuses me though is that 70% bitter and 30% sweet criteria. How to assess?!
Oh … another possibility is that they have already decided on the winner and they throw out a tender just to go through the motion. Govenment bodies do that all the time. Of course having said that, there are times when the supposed winner loses the deal because there is another better contestant.
Base on a conservative estimate, 1200kg of “superior grade” durians is going to cost at least S$12,000 (at S$10 per kg and taking into account the waste disposal cost, styrofoam boxes for takeaways, etc). Hehe, sure aint no ordinary camp food.
Yes, I too heard comments that the chances of winning an ITQ/ITT (Invitation to Quote/Tender) is pretty slim, unless one is already the party they have in mind. But I do agree with you that the ball is round – the scales can sometimes tip the other way.