Public procurement: a mechanism to improve governance
Given the amounts at stake, estimated at hundreds of billions of dirhams (dozens of billions of US dollars), public procurement attracts a great deal of interest, particularly from members of parliament. This was an opportunity for the Minister in charge of the Budget to outline the new regulations aimed at improving the governance of public procurement.
The Minister Delegate in charge of the Budget, Fouzi Lekjaâ, recently presented Parliament with a list of measures in line with international principles for public procurement. These measures advocate transparency and equal opportunities for competitors. Indeed, according to the Minister, the national public procurement management system has been updated and brought into line with world standards and practices in this field. As a result, Moroccan companies have access to public contracts under conditions and procedures similar to those in force internationally. The Minister took the opportunity of being with parliamentarians to recall the measures and procedures put in place under the new decree on public procurement. Among the measures taken, the contracting authority must include the estimated value of the contract in the invitation to tender. In this respect, it should be remembered that, prior to any call for tender or negotiation, the project owner draws up an estimate of the cost of the work to be carried out, based on its characteristics and content.
Market prices must be taken into account, as well as all other considerations and constraints, in particular those relating to the conditions and timescale for completion. The estimated cost of the work can also be established on the basis of price references, if available. Similarly, at the beginning of each financial year, and by the end of the first quarter at the latest, the contracting authority publishes a three-year forecast of the contracts it intends to award for the year in question and for the following two years. This publication is made in a nationally circulated newspaper and on the public procurement portal. The projected program is also posted by the contracting authority on the premises of the organization to which it belongs for a minimum period of 30 days. In addition, a set of consultation rules must be drawn up, defining the criteria for evaluating bidders’ offers and awarding the contract. These criteria must be objective, non-discriminatory, and proportionate to the services to be provided. These rules of consultation are given to the members of the bid opening committee and to the bidders before bids are submitted.
Before inviting bids, the contracting authority draws up precise specifications clearly defining the needs to be met, the technical specifications and the content of the services to be provided, without these specifications constituting an obstacle to freedom of access to public contracts. The contracting authority must send the order documents to the members of the commission at least six days before the publication of the invitation to tender or the dispatch of the circular letter to competitors, as the case may be, so that they can make their observations. The contracting authority is required to ensure wide dissemination of invitations to tender, by publishing the notice on the public procurement portal and in two nationally distributed newspapers.
Mohamed CHAOUI
