UPDATE: ISC withdraws from Tourism Malaysia pitch

ISC (Integrated Strategic Communications), Tourism Malaysia’s agency of 12 years, issued a public statement yesterday saying that it was withdrawing from the re-pitch because, "The ambiguity over the tender process raises questions on the seriousness of the task at hand.”

A veteran agency head said that this is not the first time that allegations of corruption have surrounded government business.

“Such tenders should come under the auditor general,” he said. “A couple of years ago we were among the major agency networks who met with the Minister to complain about the number of unknowns, non-4A accredited agencies, who were pitching for the business.”

He said many agencies were becoming frustrated at the Ministry’s disorganisation and sloth over the tender process.

A spokesperson for ISC, the agency behind the ‘Malaysia: Truly Asia’ brand campaign said, “We regret having to make this painful decision, especially as the government has set such ambitious tourism targets between now and Vision 2020.”

The spokesperson said two factors contributed to the decision. First, upon submitting the tender document on 16 August, the agency had not received any communication about the tender process timelines.  The tender stated that the contract is supposed to commence 1 January this year. "We have had our team on standby now for over five months," he said.

"As we near the end of the tender’s 180-day validity period, 12 February 2011, 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,” The second reason given was the agency’s increased workload from its new business wins.

Tourism Malaysia called a pitch in early August last year, and by the end of the year, the ad industry had yet to hear any news about the tender.

A spokesperson for the group said ISC’s withdrawal announcement follows an earlier official letter to Tourism Malaysia explaining its reasons for withdrawing its tender for the European, North American and Oceania markets’ contract stipulated from 1 January this year to 31 December 2013.