Corruption Commission has opened an investigation into a deal struck by the Saudi Railways Organization (SRO) with the Spanish manufacturer KapH under which the latter has sold 16 trains to the SRO at a total cost of SR612 million, Al-Eqtisadiah newspaper reported Wednesday quoting an informed source. The commission launched the investigation after five of the trains that started service 20 days ago developed a number of technical glitches. According to the source, a delegation arrived at the SRO's headquarters in Dammam and held a series of meetings with senior technicians and administrators who were directly involved in the bidding process and concluding the deal. The commission also raised questions about the conformity of the technical specifications set by the SRO and the criteria for selecting the winning company. The team members also inspected the new trains and inquired about the companies that submitted bids for the contract. The team members expressed surprise at the small number of companies that bid for the lucrative contract. The commission's team reviewed the penalty clauses included in the contract and their effectiveness in protecting and guaranteeing the organization's rights as well as the clauses that make the manufacturing company bear the maintenance and repair costs. The source said the team had commended the organization for its transparency in dealing with the media as was manifested by the press releases and statements it made from the time of the discovery of the technical defects to the time of the suspension of operations. A group of Saudi, German and Spanish experts have so far discovered eight technical defects, especially in the trains' air-conditioning and control systems, electrical wiring, speed and break system. The experts successfully fixed some of the defects and are working to fix two other defects. The SRO said in a previous statement that the new trains were manufactured by well-known international companies with long experience in the field. It said the Spanish company has a history stretching back to more than 100 years in manufacturing of high-speed trains. It was also pointed out that the company had manufactured high-speed trains linking Spanish cities and had contracts with several countries.
