The Anti-Corruption Commission has reviewed the procedure stipulated for the selection of parties to run governmental projects under the 11th amendment brought to the Public Financial Regulation and forwarded its concerns to the relevant authorities. The 11th amendment incorporated subsection (c) and (d) to Section 8.15 of the regulation.
The amendment facilitates the performance of large scale governmental projects without undergoing an open tender process. ACC submitted its concerns via a review paper that included proposed changes that are necessary to maintain transparency and accountability during the selection process and the possible adverse outcomes that may result in the implementation of the regulation as stipulated in the amendment.
The following points highlight the changes proposed by ACC in order to ensure competition, transparency, accountability and integrity in carrying out of large scale governmental projects.
1. Although the amendment does not require special projects approved by the cabinet or the economic committee of the cabinet or the economic council and large scale projects (mega projects) decided by the government and projects run with aid from other countries or concessional loans to be submitted to the Tender Evaluation Board, ACC has proposed that selection of successful parties to award the projects be determined via an open bid process that ensures equal opportunity to qualified bidders.
2. To change the amendment to incorporate measures to obligate the preparation of documents with detailed information regarding the nature of the service or work required.
3. To change the amendment to incorporate measures to incorporate the following in the bid document, i.e., the nature of the type of the procurement, the conditions and professional standards required, the qualifications required for a successful tender, and that a successful tenderer will be selected upon evaluation of the tenders as per published criteria.
The review paper has been submitted to the Ministry of Finance and Treasury, Attorney General’s Office, Ministry of Housing and Infrastructure and the President’s Office.