PRESS RELEASE
Following last week’s radio interview of The Hon. Minister of information with reference to some media publications regarding the Notification of Intention to Award the contract for the Design and Build of Transmission Infrastructure between Brikama and Jabang.
NAWEC would like to inform the general public that this particular activity is financed by World Bank under The Gambia Electricity Restoration and Modernization Project (GERMP) which National Water and Electricity Company Limited is the implementing Agency.
This Project (GERMP) is being implemented by the Project Implementation Unit within NAWEC.
NAWEC hereby notifies the public that the procurement process for this activity was two-stage which involves Prequalification/Initial Selection and then Request for Bids. The World Bank’s role is to ensure the process for World Bank Financed activities is carried out in line with World Bank Procurement Guidelines. The World Bank does not take part in the procurement process but instead provides “No Objections” after receiving documentation of the completion of key stages which for large contracts.
The prequalification was done by an Evaluation Committee which members comprise of NAWEC’s Technical Team, PIU, International Procurement Consultant and Consultant who did the feasibility study of the transmission infrastructures line and six (6) Applicants were shortlisted based on merits as per NAWEC’s requirements.
RFB was issued out to the shortlisted Bidders and five of them submitted their bids which were evaluated by the same Evaluation Committee. The Bid Evaluation Report was approved by the Bank and NAWEC issued out Notification of Intention to Award to all the five (5) Bidders. There is a Standstill period of 10 business days from the date of transmission of the Notification letter to allow bidders request for debriefing and complains. All these processes are being communicated to the Bank.
NAWEC would like to reassure everyone that all procurement rules have been followed with due diligence. The contract is not yet awarded therefore no details of this process can be disclosed at this stage, but all contracts signed by the project are publicly available.
The World Bank Procurement Regulations for Investment Project Financing is publicly available at http://pubdocs.worldbank.org/en/178331533065871195/Procurement-Regulations.pdf