Published :
Updated :
For all latest news, follow The Financial Express Google News channel.
Roads and Highways Department (RHD) has been facing a severe shortage of 'qualified' contractors in comparison with its projects for developing road infrastructure and procuring equipment, sources said.
As a result, they said, the department has awarded more works than the capacity of a contractor compromising the quality and timely completion of works.
Due to a faulty evaluation process, sources said, comparatively small contractors fail to get job for the construction of roads and procurement of equipment.
According to the Public Procurement Rule, the capacity of a company must be evaluated in line with the information on its ongoing work and turnover before making an evaluation proposal for a project.
There are around 750 contractors, registered with RHD, who participate in different tenders invited from its 139 offices across the country. At present, it has 174 projects for the development of regional and district roads and highways.
Besides, RHD gets contractors registered with Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU) to participate in e-tenders.
RHD officials said the scope of proper evaluation of tenderers is quite limited due to concealment of information on their works in hand.
"It is not possible for us to find out what quantity and valued work of a tenderer has during the evaluation process as most of them don't disclose information on their work in hand," said an official involved in the procurement process.
When RHD awards a company a contract by evaluating their own projects, he said, they later find that it has several works under other government agencies.
The official admitted that due to this reason, the quality of work and timely implementation of projects are often hampered seriously.
RHD has recently developed a database of its tenderers having works and identified around 40 of them have overburdened.
But sources said it could not help evaluate the capacity of bidders properly as many contractors found eligible for works may have been overburdened with the projects taken up by other government agencies.
Other than RHD, road infrastructure related works are carried out by Public Works Department, Local Government Engineering Department, Water Development Board, Bangladesh Railway and Department of Public Health Engineering etc.
At the same time, it is also found that RHD has to call fresh tenders as all participating companies have been found exhausted with works.
Though RHD has no uniform mechanism to assess the bidders' financial capacity, officials said, it is thought that a qualified company cannot implement projects worth more than Tk 10 billion a year.
Usually, the capacity of a contractor in road infrastructure development work is assessed with manpower, equipment and company's turnover.
But many big, medium and small contractors hire manpower and equipment from third party or other big contractors.
Contractors said most of equipments used in road infrastructure development are costly and usually rented from big ones.
It is also found that contractors at regional level don't want to get work in other areas including the capital city mainly due to easy availability of raw materials.
RHD officials said with the creation of new database, the department can alert 139 offices of the companies which are overburdened so that projects are implemented properly and timely.