Amendment to Government Regulation on Construction Services

The recently issued Government Regulation No. 59 of 2010 (“Amendment”) amends Government Regulation No. 29 of 2000 on Construction Services (“the Regulation”). The Amendment essentially changes the way that procurers of construction services publicize their plans to carry out a ‘public bidding’ or ‘limited bidding’ process.

Generally, public and limited biddings are two ways, among others, that procurers of construction services select construction service providers for their projects.

According to the Regulation, any plans of the procurers of construction services to hold public or limited biddings must be widely publicized through at least one printed media and via an announcement board. However, current developments have shown that relying solely to such publication is not sufficient.

For that reason, under the Amendment, procurers of construction services now must not only announce the biddings via printed media, but also through electronic media. This obligation is set out in Article 1 (1 and 2) of the Amendment.

Furthermore, the Amendment, like the Regulation, creates an obligation for procurers of construction services to compensate the bidders’ expenses following the procurer’s decision to cancel the bidding. The difference is that the Amendment stipulates that the compensation is to be awarded only if the bidding is cancelled without reasonable grounds.

The Amendment has been in force since 5 August 2010.