Three foreign companies are to supply 32, 286 pieces of references books to 11 public universities at a total price of nearly 30 million birr.
According to award notification by Public Procurement and Property Disposal Service, the companies are expected to sign a contract within seven working days. The letter signed by Tesfaye Berhanu, deputy director of the Service, formally notified the suppliers of the award on Tuesday.
In this respect, an Indian company called Researchco Book Centre took the larger chunk of the bid. The company was awarded to supply physics and chemistry reference books worth 9.5 million birr.
The second two lots, which is the supply of biology and life science and physics reference books, went to a company called John Smith and Sun. John Smith is an old UK based bookselling company established in 18th century.
The smallest bid went to a company called Star Educational Distributor, the second Indian based company to win the tender. This company will also supply Biology and Life Science reference books.
Star is not a new company when it comes to supplying books to the Ethiopian market.
It has been participating on similar bid processes by Ministry of Education over the years for the supply of textbooks.
Upon the signing of the contract, the awarded companies will be expected to fully deliver the books within three months.
Mandated to conduct different procurements on behalf of federal budgetary offices, the Service since its establishment in 2010, has procured over 51 billion birr worth of goods, including 11 million quintals of wheat, which cost 21 billion birr.
Last year, the Service has procured over two billion birr worth of common user items for 473 federal budgetary institutions and branch offices.
During, the last nine month, the Service made a 15 billion birr worth of purchases goods and services.
In this regard, the Service has been procuring items such as laboratory, information technology equipments as well as buildings to a number of public universities across the country.
By Dawit Endeshaw
