26 Jul 2016

Contractors have called on PPADB to interface with other authorities for licensing requirements.  

They said the registration process was tedious and time consuming for contractors to reproduce documents that had been filed with PPADB.

This has emerged during a consultative workshop on review of basic and minimum requirements for supplies, services and works on July 22.  

The contractors also suggested that all documentation could then be required after the bidder had been awarded a contract.  

They further requested PPADB to abolish the P5 charge for certifying a copy adding that for startup companies that could be quite challenging when they had to respond to many tenders.

Contractors further scrutinised some codes, for instance; the category of building engineering services,  suggesting that an office space must be required as one of the requirements because foreigners who traded in this category often won most of the tenders  without creating employment as expected.

On other issues, contractors said on the general supplies category, distribution licence required a warehouse but this proved to be a challenge since there was shortage of land for warehouses and there had been a challenge of no space for people who wish to acquire this type of licence.

For his part PPADB executive director-works, Mr  Elijah Motshedi, said PPADB continued to engage stakeholders on issues affecting public procurement to enable it to effectively deliver on its mandate.

With that in mind, he said the PPADB Act required the board to ensure that there was an up to date database or register of contractors in works, supplies and services for the purpose of determining workload and performance of contractors.

He further explained that the registration of these contractors did not take place in a vacuum but within a broader regulatory environment characterized by legal and administrative requirements for instance company registration, and licensing as per different statues implemented by different government ministries, departments and other licensing authorities in the country.

Mr Motshedi also pointed out that since 2011 when  the PPADB contractor registration for basic and minimum requirements for registration were first developed, there has been numerous changes in the regulatory environments and these have prompted regular reviews.

Also the bidding community was assured that the P5 charge for certifying a copy will be terminated in due course and it was only meant for cost recovery purposes. Ends