The Public Procurement and Property Administration Agency gave the green light to China Wu Yi Ltd, a Chinese construction company, for a contract worth over a billion birr.
It is to be recalled that the company lodged its complaint to the Public Procurement and Property Administration Agency challenging the decision by the Public Procurement and Property Disposal Service to drop the company from the billion birr tender.
The tender, which is divided into three lots, was part of a bid process to have three general hospitals built in Addis Ababa. In this regard, two construction companies have given a minimum offer of 3.68 billion birr for the construction of two general hospitals. During the third lot bid China Wu Yi was competing in, none of the competitors managed to pass through to the technical stage except China Wu Yi.
At the time, twelve construction companies, both local and international, were competing. Of the total number of bidders, only half of them made it to the financial evaluation stage.
Of these, in the Lot where China Wu Yi Ltd was competing in, companies including Satcon Construction, Shapoorji Balaji Middle East LLC were part of it. Moreover, four companies submitted proposals for the construction of the hospital at Bole sub-city. The companies were Afro Tsion Construction, Flintstone Engineering and two other companies from China – China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) and China Geology Corporation Overseas Construction Group (CGCOCG).
For a hospital, which is designated for Nifas Silk Sub City, it is to be recalled that five companies submitted proposals. They were Yirgalem Construction PLC, Tekelbirhan Ambaye Construction (TACON), China Railway NO3 Engineering Group, Alemayehu Ketema General Contractors and MATTA ET ASSOCIATES SAL, a Lebanese company.
In lieu of this particular project, concerning China Wu, the company complained to reverse the technical results. It failed to pass through technical evaluation particularly in relation to the capability of professionals that it would hire for the contract.
Displeased with the results by the Service, China has lodged its complaints to the Agency in December, 2017.
Following this, last week, the Agency ordered the Service to revisit the technical proposal by China Wu Yi.
We were told to ask China Wu Yi to come up with documentary evidences, Assefa Solomon, communication expert at The Service told The Reporter.
This will leave China Wu to be the only company to pass through to the technical stages and give financial offers.
Currently, there are seven publicly-owned hospitals in Addis Ababa – the Gandhi Memorial Hospital, Zewditu Hospital, Yekatit 12 Hospital and Medical College, Menelik II Hospital, and Tirunesh Beijing General Hospital, Ras Desta Damtew General Hospital as well as the Black Lion Referral Hospital.
In addition, there are 96 health centers across 116 woredas (precincts) in the city. Moreover, six new health centers are under construction. At the binging of the Third Ethiopian Millennium, health centers in Addis Ababa were numbered to be two dozen.
The aforementioned hospitals, expected to serve at least half a million people annually, are part of the city’s plan to increase the number of general hospitals in Addis.
The first modern government-run hospital in Ethiopia was built by Emperor Menelik II in 1906 in Addis Ababa, and had only 30 beds.
