PROGRAM IMPLEMENTATION OFFICES SHOULD CHANGE CURRENT POLICY OF CHOOSING A CONTRACTOR, HONORARY CHAIRMAN OF UNION OF BUILDERS SAYS

Noyan Tapan
Mar 29 2006

YEREVAN, MARCH 29, NOYAN TAPAN. The program implementation offices
(PIO) of the international organizations – customers of construction
work on a tender basis, particularly the Lincy Foundation, should
get rid of the current policy of choosing a contractor based on the
offer of the lowest price, Vazgen Poghosian, Honorary Chairman of the
Union of Builders of Armenia, Chairman of Yerevanshin OJSC, told NT
correspondent. According to him, during tenders it is not taken into
consideration whether the organization that has offered the lowest
price has the proper financial and human resources and the necessary
technical and transport base. He noted that in many cases the last
remaining resources of some Armenian construction organizations were
used for the fulfilement of the obligations assumed under the Lincy
program. In the opinion of V.

Poghosian, such a situation was caused by the PIOs rather than by
the strict requirements set by the US office of the Lincy Foundation
programs management. He said that the PIOs did not inform the Lincy
Foundation that the tender terms cannot be fulfiled in case of approval
of a low price offer: if the price offered for the construction work is
lower then the real market one, the implementation of construction work
is possible in this case with the use, for example, out-of-date steel
frameworks or unuseful cement. It was noted that taking into account
the real market prices during construction contract tenders becomes an
urgent problem, since as a result of a possible increase in the prices
of gas and electricity, the prices of building materials, particularly
stone (which is considered a monopoly product), road-metal, framework
and cement may rise as well.