There is good news for the Construction Sector in Ghana as the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) has responded favorably to the call of AGI Construction Sector for Stakeholders to accept the use of Bid Declaration Forms as an option or replacement of Bid Securities.
This promising response from PPA was evident in a just ended Stakeholder Consultation Workshop organized by the PPA held on March 13th, 2018 at the Airport West Hotel to review draft regulations on the Public Procurement Act, 2003, Act 663 as amended.
The AGI Construction Sector Chairman, Mr. Rockson Kwesi Dogbegah who was also invited to make inputs into the draft indicated that; the call by the AGI Construction Sector for Stakeholders to accept the use of Bid Declaration Form as an option or replacement of Bid Securities has been included by PPA in the ongoing review process.
In effect, instead of an amount of money that may be calculated as a percentage of the budget estimate of a bidder’s bid price to be used to secure bids with the intention of deterring bidders from withdrawing their bids before contract award, with the acceptance of bid Declaration form, contractors only loose an opportunity. Bid Declaration Form is a non-monetary form of bid security.
The Bid Declaration Form is a notarized sworn statement made by a bidder committing to sign the contract if they are selected before the end of the bid validity period stipulated in the bidding documents.
In this sworn statement, the bidder agrees to be automatically disqualified from bidding for any future government contracts for a stipulated period of time to be specified in the Tender documents if they either withdraw their bid, fail to sign the contract before the end of the bid validity period or are unable to provide a performance guarantee, if required.
This move is rather more advantageous and relevant to the sustainability of the Business Climate for Local Contractors as well as accelerating the Local Content agenda which is also being pursued by the AGI Construction Sector since the stringent requirements by the banks for preparation of Bid securities would be avoided.
This would subsequently offer contractors the opportunity to respond to more bidding opportunities to increase their chances of winning contracts. The Liquidity challenges of Local contractors due to the use of bid securities, unbearable collaterals for works procurement which most locals are not able to provide thereby forfeiting bidding opportunities, delayed procurement procedures and increased contract sums would then be a thing of the past.
The AGI Construction Sector acknowledges the BUSAC Fund with its development partners USAID, DANIDA, EU and Other Stakeholders for their immense support in promoting the Construction Sector advocacy issues.
