King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has warned ministries in the country to be fair and transparent when it comes project tendering and not to entertain or tolerate requests to break the rules.
The strong move comes as a response to a letter from the finance ministry that highlighted cases of government departments requesting for permission to award contracts to preferred companies or to restrict tenders to select firms, the Arabic language daily, Sabq reported.
The publication carried text of the finance ministry’s letter (No. 8155), drawing the monarch’s attention to such practices by the ministries.
“In response to the letter, the monarch has issued instructions, stressing that all ministries and public establishments must adhere to the rules, which require them to issue tenders for government projects to all qualified companies without exceptions,” the report said.
“The ministry said that it believes that this tendering process will allow the government to get suitable prices for its contracts. The Minister of Finance echoed that there must be no exception to any department and that he was supported by the King.”
The finance ministry noted in its letter that requests by defaulting departments violated relevant regulations, which stipulated that government projects must be tendered publicly to give a fair chance to all qualified contractors.