Kuwait, an autonomous Arab state located in the north-east of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia, occupies an area of 17,820 square kilometers (6,880 square miles) with a population of around 3.5 million. It is a constitutional land with a democratic system of government. Kuwait has the world’s fifth largest oil reserves and petroleum products.
The World Bank has classified Kuwait as a high income economy and designated it as a major non-NATO ally of the United States.
The Legal System in Kuwait:
The State of Kuwait complies with the civil law system (or known as the Latin system). Kuwaiti Law derives from the Egyptian and French codes.
Industry
In Kuwait, industry contains a number of large export-oriented petrochemical units, oil refineries, and a range of small manufacturers. It also involves large water desalinization, ammonia, desulphurization, fertilizer, brick, block, and cement plants.
Tendering process:
In Kuwait, as a general rule, a public authority may only procure equipment and commodities, and commission works through an independently administered tendering process. Public tendering is regularized by Law 37 of 1964, Law 18 of 1970 and Law 81 of 1977 as amended.
The Central Tendering Committee:
The Central Tendering Committee (CTC) plays a major role in the streamlining and development of work in government organizations. It administers the tendering processes for most public institutions though the client body (i.e. the public body requiring the service) pulls up the specifications and particular conditions it requires, reviews pre-qualifying companies, and evaluates bids technically.
On the other hand, various public institutions have their own tendering procedures, but the procedures are in essence the same as CTC procedures, and all activities relating to public tenders, such as tender announcements, invitations to pre-qualify, pre-tender meetings, and amendments to conditions and specifications, are only issued in the official gazette.
Normally, the government provides funding for major projects, but in recent years other forms of financing, such as credit facilities supported by export credit agencies (ECAs) and build-own-transfer (BOT) type schemes, have also been attempted.
In some public tenders participation is restricted to firms who have been pre-qualified. A firm presents a standard set of documents outlining its financial and technical capabilities to the CTC to prequalify.
Foreign firms have to prequalify every time they bid for a public contract, their applications should be submitted by their Kuwaiti agent and must be attached with an authenticated copy of the agency agreement.
Classification Committee:
The Contractors for Public Tenders Classification Committee was created for the Central Tenders Committee to preserve the competency level of the contractors taking part in the tenders of the ministries of the State of Kuwait.
The Classification Committee conducts classification as per to its approved standards for the contractors for road, sewage, electricity, air-conditioning and construction works. The Committee lay down terms for the companies and the organizations, which would apply for classification or for upgrade to a higher category.
There are two important exceptions to the application of the Tenders Law including Ministry of Defense Procurement; and Other Specialized Procurement.
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