9 October 2015: Zain Group, a leading mobile telecom innovator present in eight countries across the Middle East and Africa, has been managing one of two mobile networks in Lebanon, namely ‘touch’, since June 2004. Since day one, Zain Group has wholeheartedly and closely cooperated with the Lebanon Ministry of Telecom to ensure delivery of mobile services to the Lebanese community. Today ‘touch’ is the market leader in the country offering high speed 3G services nationwide and 4G services in major populated areas. 

Against this positive and progressive backdrop, Zain Group would like to express its disappointment with the conditions under which the Mobile Tender process to select the Management of the two mobile networks is conducted in the country, particularly with respect to shortfalls in the process and dealings with the international companies participating in the tender, of which Zain Group is one. 

Zain Group specifically points to the following critical shortcomings in the process:

1.     The methodology employed by the concerned party overseeing the Tender process underlies the general limitations of the process from an international standards perspective. For example, a Zain Group delegation of senior executives travelled to Lebanon from Kuwait, headed by the Vice-Chairman, Mr. Badr Al Kharafi, who is one of Zain Group’s major shareholders. The delegation arrived on time to attend the official process to open the tender on Thursday 8 October, 2015, as advised by the official invitation sent by the Tender Administration. It was only after waiting an unreasonably long period of time that the senior delegation from Zain Group was informed that the opening of the bids would not take place on the notified date, due to a ruling issued by the Shura Council the day before.

2.     Additionally, on the morning of the proceedings, it quickly became evident that only Zain Group and one other qualified company were actually present for the opening of the bids, and that other qualified parties as previously announced by the Ministry were absent. Zain Group and the other company present were not notified of such absences prior to the morning proceedings.

3.     Furthermore, the Tender Administration party rejected the request by Zain Group to recover its own financial and commercial tender submissions when Zain learnt that the opening of the bids had been postponed.  These documents legally remain the sole property of Zain Group and the Tender Administration offered no valid justification as to why they wanted to retain them. By so doing the Administration has demonstrably violated general tender process procedures.

Accordingly, Zain Group hereby expresses its reservation of all its rights towards all the parties concerned in the execution of the tender.

Zain Group is committed to the continuous development of the mobile network it manages on behalf of the Lebanese government, and looks forward to finalizing this tender process in a professional and transparent manner.    

Attachments

• zain statement about the mobile tender A.docx