There was no request from political staff or the minister on this thing. The dilemma you're facing is that this happened after I left. While I was there, everything went according to the rules. The ethics or third-party advisor even states in his document that all the things were done properly in the tendering process. The tendering letters were opened and the winner was declared. Everything went according to the rules.
On March 6th, 2008. See this statement in context.