Contractors put off protests

Kathmandu, June 11

 Announcing that the government has addressed their crucial demands related to the sixth amendment to the Public Procurement Bylaws 2075, the Federation of Contractors Associations of Nepal (FCAN) has put off its protest programmes.

It had unveiled protest programmes, including the boycott of the public construction bidding and licence return.

The government has recently made the seventh amendment to the bylaws in order to incorporate the demands of the contractors.

We have found that the government was concerned to our demands and we hope the same positive attitude from it in the days to come, said FCAN president Rabi Singh.

"However, the FCAN will continue to pressurise the government since some of their demands like allowing contractors without qualification in bidding the projects up to Rs. 50 million and punishing entrepreneurs with five different laws for a single mistake, have not been met," said Singh.

Secretary General of the FCAN Roshan Dahal urged the government to make the payment of the pending bills of the contractors.

"The delay in making the payment to the contractors will have severe economic repercussion on them. It will also impact the public construction works," he said.

The government has about Rs. 65 billion liability to the contractors.

Due to the confusion in the implementation of the projects that were transferred to the provinces and local level from the central government, the bills are pending in various line ministries and other government agencies.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 12 June 2019.