LACE Sets Bid Results For September

The Executive Director of the Liberia Community Empowerment or LACE, Ramsee A. Kumuyan says ongoing scrutiny of bids submitted by applicants to execute projects sponsored by the World Bank will be concluded in September this year.

Speaking in an interview, Kumuyan said about 100 local companies bided for projects, but the process of  scrutinizing and evaluating the bids will take more than a month, disclosing that the agency has already begun receiving some results, but the full results will not be released to the public until all of the bids were completely processed.

“We want to assure the general public and all those that bided that the process is on; and that bids have been evaluated both internally and by our partner; the World Bank. And as soon as the process is completed, they will receive letters either of acceptance or rejections,” he said.

He furthered that depending on the number of applicants or projects on hand; it takes about a month or more to carry out evaluation process before releasing results to the public. Kumuyan said bids are advertised for one month in newspapers after which a three-week period is allowed for opening.

The LACE Executive Director said bidders are required to be registered companies in Liberia, taxpayers, have qualified staff and professionally experience for the kind of work being bided for, among others before being awarded the project. 

Notwithstanding, he said the evaluation team sometimes encounters problems where some contractors do not properly filed the kind of project they are bidding for, considering two categories.

He said projects above US$75, 000.00, such as bridges, schools, among others are above the threshold so they are directly sent to the World Bank for evaluation, saying if the World Bank does not object to such bids, then the company automatically qualified for such contracts. On the other hand, projects below US$75,000 are evaluated by the LACE.