adminTHREE years after banning councils from handling tenders, Government through the finance ministry has since eased the procurement regulations citing improved transparency in the handling of tenders within the local authorities.
In 2012 Government barred all local authorities from handling tenders after a number of scandals at councils, with council officials and councillors implicated in gross underhand dealings to influence the outcome of bids.
The directive had seen the disbandment of municipal procurement boards and the formation of procurement committees mainly made up of council officials led by the town clerks or chief executive officers to manage the procurement of goods and services below $300 000 and $1 million for construction work.
All other tenders were referred to the State Procurement Board.
However, according to a circular sent to local authorities last month by the State Procurement Board’s executive chairperson, Mr Charles Kuwaza, the tender thresholds have since been increased with local authorities now being able to handle tenders for values above $10 000 and not exceeding $500 000 for informal tenders, for formal tenders the councils can now only go to tender for services pegged at above $500 000.
Previously for informal tenders councils could handle tenders worth $300 000 while for formal tenders for goods and services they could go to tender for tenders pegged at above $300 000.
For construction work the threshold has been increased to $2 million from $1 million for informal tenders while for formal tenders councils can now go to tender for works that are pegged above $2 million.
The changes were reportedly necessitated by the improved transparency in the selection of suppliers which was enhanced partly due to a number of trainings held with technical assistance from the World Bank and the African Development Bank.
However, the current thresholds for non-refundable bid security (or cash security) of $280 for local bidders and $750 for foreign bidders per tender remain unchanged.
The refundable bid bond also remains unchanged at 2,5 percent of tender sum, up to a maximum of $6 000 for local bidders, bid bonds for international remain at 10 percent of tender sum, therefore, all types of tender securities also remain unchanged.
“The board retained the maximum fee chargeable for tender solicitation documents at $10 as per previous provisions and $80 for construction tenders,” said Mr Kuwaza.
Online Reporter