Some 49 contractors, enlisted with the Roads and Highways Department (RHD), are unlikely to get further work for the time being, as they are overburdened with work, caused due to hiding information in the tender documents.
RHD made a list of the contractors as of January 31, asking its 10 zonal offices to re-evaluate the tenders to see if any of these companies applied afresh for work. The list of contractors is posted on the RHD website following approval of the ministry concerned.
"We have prepared such a list for the first time. We have found that our works are being hampered, and completion of works is not possible in time. It happens because many companies are exhausted with burden of work," said an official preferring not to be named.
He said RHD had no other option but to award works to them, as the organisation
earlier had no tools to assess tender capacity of the contractors. They used to hide information of their ongoing works in tender documents.
Officials said from now on the list will be updated every month based on the development of work during the period.
RHD selects contractors by assessing their capacity on the basis of information of all their ongoing works in RHD and other government agencies concerned, which the companies are bound to provide under the Public Procurement Rules 2008.
However, until now none of the contractors provided such information, sources alleged.
The officials also said the RHD has recently prepared the list of these companies based on information of the contractors in its database. The RHD database now keeps record of all ongoing works of the contractors. But it has no option to keep record of works under other agencies.
Other than RHD, these contractors also work under entities like Local Government Engineering Department (LGED), Public Works Department (PWD), and Bangladesh Railway etc.
Among these companies, Spectra Engineering has the highest volume of work involving Tk 16.4 billion, followed by Rana Builders Tk 13.78 billion.
Besides, the names of Toma Construction, Taher Brothers, Shamim Enterprise, Navana Construction and Orient Trading and Builders are also included in the list.
However, the companies which are working in the big development projects, like - - four-lane highways, are not in it.
According to RHD officials, its chief engineer has directed all the 10 zonal offices to follow the list along with the statement of work volume it contains while evaluating proposals. The directive also asked them to reassess the report, if evaluation in this regard has already been done.
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