Bidding and Tenders Oversight in Yemen
SANA’A, Oct. 7 — There is a new Supreme Authority to oversee government bids and tenders.
“The committee in charge of preparing the draft law of government bids and tenders has finished its work and it will be referred to the cabinet next week to finalize the measures and then referred to the parliament during October, ” said Rashad al-Rasas, the head of the committee.
The committee, engaging itself in overseeing the government tenders as well as training and qualifying, will include the private sectors and the Non-Government Organizations to ensure society’s participation in controlling the bids and tenders.
Expecting the draft law to be discussed by the Parliament following Ramadan’s holiday, al-Rasas further declared the new law addresses also complaints of bidders as well as the procedures involved according to the law of local governance.
Having the new authority will assist in solving problems like the current tender dispute in Hodieda.
Over 20 Business enterprises have complained saying the government-affiliated Yemeni Economic Enterprise is violating the law by awarding government contracts without passing through the legal mechanism of tenders. Normally the details of the business transactions should be published and bids accepted, while the winner bid is usually the one which provides and lowest price and highest value. The complaint was filed to the president’s office demanding all government tenders to be issued in public to allow competitive offers to bid on the tender.
Sources told Yemen Times that the tender which motivated the businesses to file the complaint is the furnishing of 540 Medical care units in Hodieda by the Ministry of Health without issuing a public tender. The tender was awarded directly to the Yemeni Economic Enterprise in violation of the law. The Minister of Health said this order was given directly to the Yemeni Economic Enterprise as the ministry did not have the funds required to furnish the Medical care units while Vice President Hadi had issued clear instructions to furnish them within six weeks prior to the national celebration of the May 22 celebrations held in Hodieda.
Economic and Legal experts justified the action of the ministry as they were stuck between two violations, the first is to issue a public tender without the presence of funds to pay for the goods in exchange of the winning offer which would be a breach of contract and a violations of the tender. The other violation is to contract the government-affiliated Yemeni Economic Enterprise to furnish the medical units and delaying the payment until the next year 2007 and until the Ministry is able to fund the furnishing, while clear instructions by the Vice President forced the ministry to commit the second violation.
