Gov’t prioritizes health, education sectors in floated tenders

The Jordanian government has floated several tenders across the Kingdom, prioritizing the education and health sectors, revealed Director General of the Government Tenders Department Mahmoud Khleifat. In a statement on Sunday, Khleifat pointed out that there are six expansion projects that will be floated in the health sector in the Amman, Mafraq and Zarqa governorates, while several tenders that were floated to build schools and rehabilitate school buildings that were funded by a Saudi fund, a Kuwaiti fund and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). On road maintenance, Khleifat stated that five road construction and maintenance projects were rewarded this year for different areas across the Kingdom under the Kuwait Fund For Arab Economic Development. In cooperation with the Ministry of Youth, and in implementation of a Crown Prince Foundation initiative, youth centers were built using the modular construction process, which involves constructing a building off-site under controlled plant conditions, thereby swiftly building top grade edifices. On procurement, Khleifat stressed that the government focused on two aspects: automating procurement and implementation procedures and government green procurement, adding that the Tenders Department has adopted this measure by switching to solar energy in government buildings and replacing lighting units in buildings and roads with energy-saving LED units. Khleifat pointed out that the government has also formed a higher committee to develop green procurement policies, explaining that green procurement criteria will be set and introduced for government procurement and the product life cycle will be one of the evaluation criteria for procurement to get a good value for money. He touched on the subject of framework agreements in public procurement, which are considered one of the modern contracting methods that have been introduced into the government procurement system. Jordan, he noted, is one of the leading countries in the Arab world to use framework agreements in the procurement of simple jobs such as maintenance of public schools to address emergencies that may threaten the safety of students. Khleifat underlined that framework agreements help reduce costs as a result of grouping different needs to obtain competitive prices, in addition to saving time and effort resulting from the implementation of repeat procurements, as well as involving the private sector in dealing with emergency cases.

Source: Jordan News Agency