We give below a synopsis of some of the activities that have taken place during the past year that affect our membership and on issues raised by our members that we are currently pursuing at BOCCIM.
Budget Speech and current economic outlook
The current development budget favours the industry at P 10 billion expected to be sent this financial year, 2009-2010. However, revision of the budget is expected on how long the recession is expected to last.
Liaison with Government
Liaison with Government continues to happen through the HLCC process and other workshops to which BOCCIM gets invited. These include forums such as the meetings of the Economic committee of cabinet.
We have also as BOCCIM, had two retreats with the Vice President where he updated BOCCIM on government’s efforts to efficientise the Public Service, but also spelt out expectations on the Private sector – such as desisting from corruption and need for contractor’s to improve their performance.
30% Reservation of Projects for citizen contractors
The reservation policy which has been in existence has not been implemented for some time. Following discussions with MWT it has been agreed that the policy should be implemented through the Project Allocation Committee formed for the implementation of Direct Appointment of Consultants.
Direct appointment of consultants for projects of value below P 75 Million
The policy was agreed with government and is currently being implemented with good results being achieved in terms of allocations. However, commissioning of consultants still delays the process and improvements need to be effected to achieve the objective of reducing procurement lead times for consultants and overall implementation of projects.
To date projects have been allocated from DBES, TSD Ministry of Education, Ministry of Local Government (MLG) and BDF. Of these only MLG has not commissioned any of the 38 projects taken to PAC.
Issue of BONDS IN LIEU of Retention for Government Projects
Government has acceded to the industry’s request for contractors to issue bonds in lieu of 10% retention being deducted from payment certificates. This is expected to assist contractors with cash flow.
Increased cielings in contractor grading
Recently the PPADB has increased the ceilings for contractor grading and these can be accessed on the PPADB website.
Some contractors have however complained that there are no jobs in some grades. There is a need for BOCCIM to approach government and propose that project planning should include suitable break down of project to ensure that there is enough work in all categories.
Delays in processing PPADB grading/ Applications
There are complaints by contractors that PPADB are taking a very long time to process applications, and there is no communication with the applicants. The problem seems to stem from shared responsibility between PPADB and the Government departments, as well as lack of resources at PPADB. According to the PPADB Act, the registration of contractors is the responsibility of PPADB. We will keep following up on this matter.
Use of domestic subcontractors in government construction projects
Government has acceded to our request to use both Domestic and Nominated subcontracts. They however request that we craft a form of agreement to be signed by the main contractor and the nominated sub-contractor that the two parties shall solve all their disputes with minimum, if any, the involvement of the client.
Other PPADB Related matters
Certification of tender documents.
There is a general query by members of BOCCIM that the requirement for tenders to be certified by issuing authorities for each document is onerous. Also that Police should not certify. Whereas we understand that such rules are intended to deal with fraudulent practices, we will pursue the matter with PPADB for a better approach.
Disqualification criteria in tendering
There is a general outcry that the criteria used for disqualifying tenderers is unnecessary and is not objective. We are engaging PPADB on this matter especially as quite often PPADB already has this documentation. The requirements can also be treated as conditions of award instead of disqualification criteria.
Debriefing of tenderers
Following repeated complaints by BOCCIM members and requests by ourselves (BOCCIM Engineering sector) for PPADB to address the issue of de-briefing of tenderers PPADB recently held a workshop where this issue was also addressed. We attach copies of the presentation. This workshop was for consultants.
Please note that a similar workshop for contractors will be held on the 20th March 2009 (this Friday) those who can should attend. Contact PPADB for more details.
