The Acting Secretary-General of the Central Agency for Public Tenders, Osama Al-Duaij, told an Arab daily that he had prepared a proposal to develop the organizational structure of the Central Agency for Public Tenders, and that he will submit it to the Civil Service Commission once finalized.
Al-Duaij, revealed that the general secretariat of the agency has reviewed the provisions of the law and its executive regulations and amendments, in order to prepare an initial draft to revise its provisions, in coordination with the relevant authorities, and then present the matter to the Minister of Justice and Minister of State for Integrity Affairs, Counselor Jamal Al-Jalawi.
He also pointed out that the Agency had dealt with the tenders of at least 75 government agencies, and that the Agency’s Board of Directors issues between 800 to 1000 decisions on a monthly basis, which shows the huge tasks placed on the members of the Agency’s Board of Directors, and the General Secretariat of the Agency, which reviews the report of the concerned authorities on issues on Tenders.
He also indicated that he had completed preparing the work procedures manual at the Agency which aims to implement the purchase of items, the provision of services and the implementation of tasks that would benefit public authorities in accordance with the Tenders law. He stated that the procedural manual clarifies the documentary cycle of transactions related to the registration, classification and qualification requests for suppliers, contractors, contractors and service providers, in addition to offering requests, awards, complaints, grievances and change orders, according to the various contracting methods. On the other hand, the process goes through the various stages of completion and requirements for their implementation, based on the principles of transparency, equal opportunities and governance rules.
He also expected that the work procedures manual will be circulated to the employees of the agency by next week, to adhere to the content mentioned in the chapters of the manual, which includes the methodology for preparing audit reports, procedural, technical and legal audits and documenting observations, in addition to preparing the data to be provided and documents to be submitted, the rules and regulations, stages of the documentary cycle, time periods, indicative instructions, and financial fees.
In addition, the previous role of the secretariat of the Central Tenders Committee was focused on preparing the agenda, writing the minutes of the committee’s meeting, in addition to verifying the availability of the approvals of the concerned authorities and submitting all documents and schedules attached to the tender documents. Today, on the other hand, is operating under the umbrella of the Public Tenders Law 49 / 2016 and its amendments, which are represented by the General Secretariat of the Agency, in addition to reviewing, auditing and documenting procedural and technical notes for pre-qualification, offering, awarding, change orders, extension and renewal of concluded contracts, and documenting the necessary notes for presentation to the Board of Directors of the Agency.
Measures to preserve public money are as follows:
• Verify the costs and estimated values of projects and adjust change orders, in accordance with the provisions of Article 7 of the Tenders Law, and achieve the best specifications at the lowest prices, the fastest completion time and the least risk factor.
· Encourage international companies to establish businesses in Kuwait, by excluding Kuwaiti companies licensed to invest in accordance with the provisions of Law 116/2013 regarding the promotion of direct investment, from the provisions of items (2 and 3) of the conditions for applying for classification in the Agency, and based on Article No. 19 of the Regulations Executive of the Tenders Law, regarding the practice of commercial activities and the implementation of projects in Kuwait.
· Contribute to encouraging owners of small and medium enterprises to enter and participate in state tenders, by granting them a subsidy of 20 percent, and facilitating the access of owners of small and medium-sized enterprises to the fourth classification category for general contracting contractors, and exempting them from fees prescribed for the sale of documents in accordance with the text of Article 39 of Law 74 / 2019.
• Verification of the study to identify and assess the need based on the provisions of Article No. 36 of the Tenders Law, and the implementation of the Cabinet Resolution No. 289 with the recommendations contained in the same decision regarding the results of the work of the Committee to Study Contracting Procedures with Governmental Entities assigning the device to obligate government agencies to study value engineering, which is a systematic method for value improvement for construction projects, by providing alternatives to raise efficiency and performance, as well as reduce costs.
• The Agency is currently developing an appropriate strategy for tendering bundled service contracts, such as facilities management, and others that would integrate businesses or services of a common nature into one contract to control costs and reduce expenses.
• The device is working on the development of performance contracts models for services (cleaning, guarding, hotel services, operation and maintenance works) that are based on providing the same service with high efficiency, and achieving the highest quality at the lowest costs, and not as is currently done by providing specific numbers of workers equipment, machinery and materials to provide the required services.
Since the commencement of the new tender law, the Agency has achieved the following:
1. Preparing work systems for review and audit reports, for prequalification documents, offering, results, award recommendations, requests for change orders, extension of concluded contracts, complaints and grievances.
2. Documenting and circulating the data and documents that are required to be submitted within the requests of the public authorities.
3. Preparing the general frameworks for the forms of pre-qualification advertisements, the offering and advertisements.
4. Preparing the agenda system for the meeting of the Board of Directors of the Agency.
5 – Preparing a system for implementing the decisions of the Agency’s Board of Directors.
6 – Documenting the typical formulas of the decisions of the Board of Directors of the Agency.
7- Preparing the work procedures manual and recording the documentary cycle.
8 – Establishing a method for working and documenting the offering procedures, using the two-envelope system or the points system.
9 – Establishing a mechanism for working and documenting the offering procedures, in a two-stage system.
10 – Establishing a working mechanism and documenting the offering procedures, according to the tour system.
11 – Developing and automating the schedule and minutes of meetings for the Board of Directors of the Agency.
12 – Development of the automated document cycle system for the device.
13 – Launching the service of electronically selling tender documents.
14 – Preparing and issuing a circular regarding the rules, procedures and criteria for classifying public contracting contractors.
15 – Preparing and issuing a circular regarding the approval of the decisions of the Agency’s Board of Directors.
16 – Issuing a circular regarding the system and controls for preventing conflict of interest.
17 – Documenting and circulating rumored observations on the offering documents, award recommendations, requests for change orders, and the extension of concluded contracts submitted by public and relevant authorities.