TM TENDER PROCESS FLAWED

An advertising agency has alleged that all’s not right with Tourism Malaysia’s advertising and promotion tender process.

This has sparked the interest of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), which has already opened a file on the Tourism Ministry.

International advertising agency ISC (Integrated Strategic Communications) Group, which was responsible for the successful "Malaysia, Truly Asia" campaign, today announced the withdrawal of its tender offer for the new three-year contract, citing "ambiguity" in the tender process.

ISC had produced and run the multi-award winning brand campaign for the past 12 years.

In a statement, a spokesperson said it had sent an official letter to Tourism Malaysia explaining its reasons for withdrawing its bid for the contract covering the European, North American and Oceania markets for the Jan 1, 2011-Dec 31, 2013 period.

It is understood that there were five bids for the RM600 million advertising and promotions budget, of which the European, North American and Oceania markets would get the lion’s share.

"ISC Group decided on Jan 26 to withdraw its tender offer for Tourism Malaysia’s re-pitch for a new three-year contract after having serviced the account since 1999, over four different three-year contract
periods, three prime ministers and five different tourism ministers," the statement read.

"We regret having to make this painful decision, especially as the government has set such ambitious tourism targets between now and Vision 2020.

"The ambiguity over the tender process raises questions on the seriousness of the task at hand," said the spokesperson.

"We submitted our tender document on Aug 16 last year and to date, have not received any communication as to tender process timelines.

"As the tender document states, the contract is supposed to commence Jan 1, 2011 and we have had our team on standby now for over five months.

"As we near the end of the tender’s 180-day validity period ( Feb 12), we are not sure if there will even be time to make the industry-accepted practice of presenting and clarifying our proposal to the tender selection committee."

ISC also said that due to its new business wins and increased workload this year, the agency cannot realistically accommodate priority for Tourism Malaysia services as committed to in the tender submission nearly six months ago.

Meanwhile, in the same statement, ISC president and CEO Austen Zecha said: "Some Malaysian agencies have in the past declined to tender for certain accounts, but rarely has one withdrawn its tender or bid after submission."