The Confederation of Economic Associations of Mozambique (CTA) is contesting the Public Works Contracts Regulation, which was approved last December, claiming that it favours foreign bidders.
According to the Mozambican Information Agency (AIM), the concern was expressed by the president of the Federation of Contractors at CTA, Bento Machaila, at a press conference held this Thursday, 25 July, in Maputo.
The Mozambican contractors said that there was a loophole in the law regarding the prior review of contracts by the Administrative Court when it comes to bidders from abroad.
‘The regulation establishes that the contractor may, whenever it deems it necessary, confirm the veracity of the content of the legal, economic, financial, technical and tax compliance documents in the country of origin and the absence of bankruptcy or insolvency petitions,’ they added.
‘The Public Works Contracts Regulation has gaps’
Bento Machaila explained that ‘the wording gives the contracting authority the power, and not the duty, to confirm the context of the documents that are presented by foreign companies or bidders’, and the procedures that the contracting authority must follow if it wants to confirm the veracity of the same documents are not clear in the regulations, a fact that contributes to the government hiring unqualified companies.
‘That’s why we want to propose to the authorities that the documents be clearly and fully labelled and that their contents be verified,’ he said.
The leader also said that Law 13/2024 of 19 January and Law 14/2014 of 14 August, both on the organisation, functioning and procedure of the public accounts section of the Administrative Court, lack other elements for their effectiveness.
‘As such, the contractors propose that Article 72(1) of the aforementioned law should be added with “subparagraph C-1”, as this law rules out prior inspection of contracts signed under projects and programmes financed with funds from cooperation agencies or multilateral financial bodies,’ he said.
In conclusion, the source pointed out that by maintaining the legislation in force, foreign bidders are given a great advantage because, in addition to the fact that their contracts are not subject to obtaining a visa from the Administrative Labour Office, they are exempt from the burden of fees for submitting contracts to administrative jurisdiction.
