In the wake of the passage of the 2015 budgetary allocations in the National Assembly and the apportioning of funds to the respective government ministries and departments, the National Procurement and Tender Administration (NPTA) has been faced with a flood of tenders from applicants seeking to secure state contracts in response to a range of ‘invitations to tender’ published by the various government agencies.
A Ministry of Finance source has told this newspaper that the surfeit of tenders which could have numbered around 500 over the past two weeks cover a wide range of areas including bids to provide key civil works infrastructure across the country as well as repairs and construction work in the public works and education sectors, among others. The spread of tenders also reportedly cover service provision requirements in areas such as supply of materials and Information and Technology services.
The administration of the state tender system has for years been the subject of public controversy with