Abstract:
Procuring Entities' practices in awarding Public Construction Contracts are subject to petitions
if they do not comply with the Act and Regulations. The tendering stage is one of the public
procurement stages which is susceptible to appeals because, it is at this stage where dissatisfied
Contractors who participated are allowed to appeal against Procuring Entities. Appeals in
public procurement contract award demonstrate a fair system aggrieved party can petition.
However, the existence of appeals may be an indicative of inadequate procurement practices
by Procuring Entities’.
Researchers have underscored the importance of integrity, transparency, accountability,
fairness, and equality to competition in the field of public procurement. The matter of rights
in the Contractor’s selection and compliance with the Act and Regulations has also been
addressed. Nevertheless, there is limited knowledge of what contractors’ appeal against, and
their genuine reasons. These indicate that, how the Act and Regulations are used sometimes
breached, and or violated are unexamined. Therefore, this study aimed at filling this gap by
identifying the nature of the contractor’s appeal cases, the arguments that support their appeals,
and examining the Procuring Entities’potential violations of the Act and Regulations.
Data used in this study were collected from published appeal cases by the Public Procurement
Appeals Authority before subjected to qualitative data analysis techniques. NVivo 12 plus
software and Microsoft Excel aided the data management and analysis process. The findings
show that contractors appeal against Procuring Entities violations of the Public Procurement
Act, Regulations, Rules, and Guidelines through misinterpretation, use of defective and
unapproved standard documents, unethical conduct, and omissions in decision-making while
handling public procurement. The study found the severity of Public Procurement Act and
Regulations violation practices in preparing tender documents, conducting tender evaluations,
the applicability of preference schemes, and decision making.
The study recommended that to minimize the prevalence of appeals in public procurement
contract awards, Procuring Entities shall abide with the requirements of the Act, Regulations.
Procedures for appointing tender evaluation committee members and Penalties provided in the
Act for convicted officers of the PEs shall be reviewed and . Nonetheless, Public Procurement
Regulatory Authority shall prepare and issue authorized Standard Tender Documments for
the procurement of works exclusive reserved for local contractors
