The role of contractual arrangements in improving health sector ...

Bahrain
in Bahrain or in the region to attend to calls; provision of replacement equipment in certain
cases until the equipment is repaired; and carrying out preventive service every quarter.
Clarity of bidding and selection process
The Ministry publishes the tender in local newspapers in both Arabic and English.
Through this advertisement, the contractors are asked to collect tender documents (on
payment of stipulated fee) from the Ministry. A closing date for submission of bids by the
contractor is stated in the advertisement, which also gives the date and time of opening the
tender and invites the contractors to attend the opening of bids. The contractors can seek
further information and clarification in writing. Responses to queries by any contractor are
sent to all contractors who bought the tender documents.
Contractor selection process
After the advertisement is placed, the following steps are taken.
Bids are accepted in a sealed envelope at the Ministry and Finance and National Economy and
National Economy on behalf of the Tender Board until the closing date.
The day after the closing date, the bids are opened by the Tender Board in the presence of
bidders.
All the bids are listed on a display board showing the price quoted by each bidder.
Each page of these bids is stamped and punched with the Government logo so that no pages can
be added later.
All the bids are handed over to the contracting Ministry, i.e. the Ministry of Health in this case,
for evaluation.
The bids are carefully studied by the Directorate of Medical Equipment for completeness and to
determine whether the bids meet the Ministry of Health specifications.
The findings are then presented to the Tender Evaluation Committee, which comprises members
of the Directorate of Finance, Directorate of Materials Management and Directorate of
Medical Equipment.
The committee makes final recommendation for award of the contract to a bidder. Various
factors considered by this committee include prices quoted, ability of the contractor to
meet requirements, contractor’s past history of reliability, Ministry’s past experience with
the contractor etc.
The recommendation of the Tender Evaluation Committee is then sent to the Minister of Health
for approval. Once it is approved by the Minister, the award of contract is sent to the
Tender Board for their final approval. After receiving the approval from the Tender Board,
the contract is awarded to the selected contractor.
The contract is then signed between the Ministry and the contractor.
The format of the contract is standard, as approved by the Ministry and Finance and National
Economy.
In both case studies, the selection was based on bid price as well as on the quality of
technical proposal. No scoring criteria were used for bidders’ proposals. Involvement of an
expert third party (Tender Board) ensures transparency and fairness of the selection process.
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