The Public Procurement and Property Administration Agency responded to a complaint over a multimillion birr worth tender to construct new home for the House of Peoples’ Representatives (HPR) and the House of Federation (HOF), in favor of local companies.

The Agency was looking at the complaint filed by Afro Tsion Construction Plc.

The international competitive bid for the construction of a multipurpose and complex office and facility building was floated a couple of months ago.

In this respect, both local and international companies have shown an interest for competitive Design and Build (DB) contract.

As the bid proceeded the Ethiopian Construction Work Corporation, which floated the tender, demanded all the participant bidders to have prior experience of executing Design and Build (DB) contract worth USD 50 million dollars.

Later, Afro Tsion, a local contractor, issued a complaint against this specific requirement. It submitted its complaint to the Complaint Hearing Department at the Agency.

The complaint stressed on the fact that the requirement by the Corporation violates a procurement directive which states that local bidding companies should only be expected to fulfill 70 percent of the aforementioned of prior building contracts when in case required in respective bid process.

However, the tender document expects all bidders, irrespective of their origin to have similar experience.

Agency decides in favor of Afro Tsion Construction in new parliament building bid

 

This will discourage local construction companies, Sisay Desta (Eng.), CEO of Afro Tsion told The Reporter. Established with an initial capital of Birr 50,000 in 1998, Afro Tsion is currently a major player in Ethiopia’s construction sector.

In line with the procurement directive, local companies are supposed to have a track record of executing similar projects; 70 percent of the mentioned USD 50 million.

The Agency, after looking into the case, wrote a letter to the Corporation to abide by the directive, The Reporter has learnt from officials from the Agency.

Once it is constructed, the building will serve as the new offices of the House of People’s Representatives (HPR) and House of Federation (HOF).

The site for the construction of the new office and facility building will be located in Arat Kilo area in front of the main palace. It will rest on a total area of 69,232.40 square meters for the said construction purpose. A preliminary architectural design has already been done where the building has 204,704-meter square gross built up area.

Once the construction of the new building is completed, it will replace the current parliament which is believed to be built in the early 1930s.

The new building of the complex, which is expected to cost more than two billion birr, had been in the planning over the past one decade.

The plan to build a new complex was first mentioned by Degife Bula, the then speaker of the House of Federation