Rwanda has blacklisted close to 200 firms from doing business with the government over breach of contracts.
The Rwanda Public Procurement Authority (RPPA) said that 197 Rwandan companies will be ineligible to get government contracts for a period ranging from six months to five years.
Public agencies, ministries, public universities and schools in Rwanda procure goods and services through a process guided by the public procurement law.
A report of Office of the Auditor General of Rwanda on government expenditure during the 2016/2017 fiscal year shows that contractors had delayed or abandoned a total of 109 projects worth over $235 million.
Rwandan daily The New Times reports that RPPA’s investigation officer Harriet said blacklist is made public to prevent cases of government entities engaging them again and as a form of deterrence.
“The motivation behind making these companies public is to reduce the number of people who don’t honour their contracts and also cut on the number of defaulters who use forged documents like bank statements and proof of contract performance to score tenders,” she told the newspaper.
Some of the blacklisted firms were found to have falsified tender documents to gain the lucrative contracts.
According to the law, tenders for works with estimated value exceeding Rwf1.2 billion ($1.3M) are open to international contractors.
This is also applicable for the procurement of goods and services with estimated value above Rwf600 million ($671,500).
The blacklisted companies, which can challenge the decision in courts, will be posted on the portal of the agency.
