Govt amends Public Procurement Regulation; MCC and IPS not interlinked; Spokesperson

Kathmandu, Dec. 26: The government has endorsed the Public Procurement (9th Amendment) Regulation-2019. This was the fourth time that the government has amended the Regulation first introduced in 2007.

A meeting of the Council of Ministers held on December 23 took the decision to this effect, according to Minister for Communication and Information Technology Gokul Prasad Baskota.

The amended regulation has scrapped the previous provision of extending the term of any project worth above Rs. 20 million, which were awarded before Jestha 23, 2076 B.S, by one year until Jestha 22, 2077 B.S.

Under the newly amended regulation, the term of any project will be extended for a maximum of one year right from the extended term of the project, according to Minister Baskota.

“Any firm or contractor whose project’s term is going to expire should submit an application seeking a renewal of the date for a year 15 days before the project’s term expires,” Minister Baskota said.

After receiving the application for date renewal of their project, the concerned bodies, which received the application, should take the decision within 60 days, he said.

If any government official delays or denies extending the term, they shall be liable to face music, he said.

The regulation has scrapped the provision of receiving 10 per cent compensation fee from the contractors for extending the term of the project, Minister Baskota said.

The regulation has a provision of collecting a compensation fees from the first contract date to the extended term of the project.

Similarly, the endorsed Regulation has also provisioned of submitting a letter of line of credit service from the banks while inking the final extended contract paper of any project, he said. The credit line service should be taken from those service providing banks of Nepal under the given framework of the Public Procure Monitoring Office (PPMO). The PPMO is currently under the Office of Prime Minister and Council of Ministers.

Minister Baskota said that the provisions in the amended Public Procurement Regulation would now help maintaining transparency, pace of the project work and ability of the contractors.

Minister Baskota said that Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli did not have to seek vote of confidence from the parliament in the present context. “If it is required, it will not be a big deal to the Prime Minister.”

“The government doesn’t require to seek a vote of confidence as the Samajwadi Party Nepal led by Upendra Yadav had joined the government only after the formation of the government,” he said. PM Oli still enjoys his majority in the House of Representatives, he said.

Referring to the Millennium Challenge Corporation and Indo-Pacific Strategy, Minister Baskota said that they were two separate issues and could not be interlinked to each other. MCC is a project that began in 2011 and the Indo-Pacific Strategy in 2017.

Meanwhile, the Cabinet meeting held on December 23 decided to appoint Dr. Chandra Mani Adhikari of Jhapa district to the post of executive director of Sahid Gangalal National Heart Centre.

Similarly, the government gave a full shape to Nepal Medical Council, by nominating its members. Kishwore Bikram Malla, Dr. Harihar Wasti, Dr. Sandhya Chapagain, Dr. Suprabhat Shrestha, Dr. Pranit Pokharel were appointed its members, and Dr. Krishna Prasad Adhikari as registrar of the Council.

The government has also decided to purchase machines, tools and equipment, technology, its system and other required materials and physical infrastructure that required for Security Press through the government to government model.

According to Minister Baskota, the government of France and Germany had submitted their proposals to the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology and would later endorse one suitable proposal through Public Procurement Regulation-2007. Budgetary channel to purchase the Security Press would be managed by the Ministry of Finance, he said.

The Cabinet meeting also decided to extend the term of Honorary Consul of Nepal Ramj Jiwan Panjiyar to the Republic of Cyprus.

The government had also decided to accept a grant assistance of USD 39.3 million for Green Climate Fund for ‘Building a Resilient Churiya Region of Nepal project. According to Minister Baskota, this was the first time the government had accepted such kind of grant assistance. RSS