Tampering with public procurement

The procurement regime needs a complete overhaul, but the motive and method are doubtful.

Finance Minister Janardan Sharma, since his appointment to the position about a hundred days ago, is flexing all his muscles to "restructure" Nepal's public procurement system by amending the Public Procurement Act 2007 and related Public Procurement Regulations 2008. He is reported to have formed a task force last week to recommend the required amendments to remove provisions that he sees as bottlenecks to the timely implementation of projects. Headed by the secretary of the Public Procurement Monitoring Office , the task force has representation from about a dozen ministries mainly with responsibilities in public civil works, and it has been asked to submit a report with specific changes in the act, regulations and current requirement of bidding documents.