PAD - LGED

Reform Project (PPRP-II) and developed as a set of procurement performance-related
indicators named PROMIS (Procurement Management Information System). This has
elements regarding procurement performance on advertising, bidding, timeliness in
evaluation and award, complaint resolution, F&C prevalence etc.
• Timely Bidding Process and Contract Award. On many occasions LGED awarded civil
works contracts at the beginning of rainy season or late in the dry season, resulting in
non-activity of contractors for half of the year and delays in contract implementation. All
contracts which were awarded in this pattern took one year extra for completion. This
did not impact maintenance contracts but only improvement works. On the other hand
contracts awarded during rainy season had two full dry seasons to be completed.
• Technical Assistance needs in improving procurement culture. LGED has been going
through traditional procurement and civil works execution since its inception though the
size of contracts has been getting larger with every project, (both in size and estimated
cost). However, due to its decentralized nature and contractors’ capacity constraints,
LGED is generally compelled to make contract sizes small and this results in monitoring
many contracts per project each year.
• Sub Delegation of Financial Powers: While the district and sub-district offices of LGED
have been exercising their assigned financial sub-delegation, LGED frequently sent
procurement cases to its headquarters when (i) lowest evaluated bid price is more than ten
percent above estimated cost, (ii) re-tendering and (iii) complaint. The above practices
caused delays in procurement.
• Complaints and Resolution: During the first three years of RTIP-I, there used to be
frequent complaints by bidders. After implementing PRMF, where LGED agreed to have
complaint boxes in every district offices, the occurrence of complaints diminished and
Bank’s post-review also did not reveal any issue related to contractors’/bidders’
representations.
• Timely selection of design/supervision consultants: For the period between 2003 and
2008, long-term design-supervision consultants provided services to LGED. New
contracts for 2008-10 were awarded in August 2008 followed by single source selection
(SSS) of supervision consultants for 2010-11. Except the first two selections which had
been competitive, each time LGED approached the need for extension or SSS at a late
hour, resulting in the need for retroactive financing for services rendered.
• Impact of Procurement Reform: LGED is one of the target agencies of the
Government’s PPRP-II. As part of it, huge capacity building of LGED has taken place in
last nine years, and currently 377 out of 624 procuring entities (about 60 percent) of
LGED have at least one person with national three-week training on procurement. LGED
is also a front-runner in procurement monitoring (through PROMIS) and electronic
government procurement (e-GP).
• Cancellation of Contracts and Debarment of Firms: LGED during various stages of
RTIP-I has debarred about 20 firms. Due to non-performance, about 40 contracts were
cancelled and either re-tendered or repackaged. As regards cancellation of contracts, the
Bank’s experience is that it is difficult for LGED to cancel contracts on its own and
during implementation support missions, LGED needed the Bank’s assertion to
implement such actions.
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