On 6th Falgun, at the election rally organized by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in Dhangadhi, senior party leader Balendra (Balen) Shah came out in a strong voice against construction entrepreneurs who do not work. ‘The road that can be built in two years will not be built even in 20 years, it has to be built in one and a half years, that is our party’s agenda, whether it is tied to a tree, made to lie on the road or put in a cage, the road has to be built,’ he had said at the rally.

While Balendra’s statement was going viral on social media, the next day on 7th Falgun, while making the party’s ‘pledge’ public at the National Assembly, Congress President Gagan Thapa claimed that the construction work was being delayed due to the law.

‘It is not possible to build roads on time without amending the Procurement Act, we have seen that roads can be built on time only by implementing at least 41 laws, I have heard someone say that I will punish and punish those who do not build roads on time,’ he had said during his speech, ‘Roads cannot be built on time by punishing anyone, 41 laws need to be changed immediately to build roads on time.’

Finally, Balendra reached the leadership of the government. As Gagan said, the decision to amend the law was taken to increase the speed of government formation under the leadership of Prime Minister Balendra. The 100 agenda for governance reform approved by the Council of Ministers mentions amending the Public Procurement Act within 30 days. The government has decided to amend the Public Procurement Act to control delays, cost increases, substandard work and corruption in the public procurement process.

It has been decided to amend the Act to implement 'Value for Money, Life Cycle Costing, E-Governance Marketplace and Performance-Based Contracts.' Currently, the Procurement Act 2063 is being implemented. Construction entrepreneurs have been complaining that some of its sections are not practical. Sub-section 8 of Section 59 of the Act states that if the contract agreement is terminated, the entire security deposit kept by the construction entrepreneur for the work will be forfeited and whatever amount is required to complete the remaining work after the contract is terminated, that amount will be recovered from the bidder who does not perform as per the agreement as government dues. All the contracts that have been terminated now should be implemented according to the said section of the Act. Construction entrepreneurs are opposing this, while government agencies are backing away saying that it is impractical and cannot be implemented.

Amending impractical laws after discussing with the concerned stakeholders can bring positive results in the construction sector: Devkumari Guragain, former secretary Former secretary Devkumari Guragain said that it is necessary to make the Procurement Act timely and practical. ‘The Procurement Regulations have been amended many times,’ she said, who has also worked in the Public Procurement Monitoring Office. ‘Amending impractical sections of the Act after discussing with the concerned stakeholders and completing the process can bring positive results in the construction sector.’

Since the Procurement Act was made according to the practices of foreign countries, some sections have become difficult, so she suggests that it needs to be improved on a ‘fast track’ basis. Sources in the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport say that reforms in the law are also necessary to increase the speed of construction.

Senior advocate Baburam Dahal said that the Act can be amended through an ordinance. ‘It seems like they are trying to bring in an ordinance without calling the parliament,’ he said, ‘otherwise it will take time to pass the law from the parliament, it is not a task that can be done in 30 days.’ In cases other than ordinances, an act must first be made and passed by the Council of Ministers. Then, he said, the bill led by 3 ministers in the Council of Ministers will be passed by the committee and registered in the parliament.

‘Parliament does not have to be held to register this, it is done whenever it is done, it reaches the parliament after registration. There is an amendment process, the time for that takes three days,’ Dahal said, ‘No committee has been formed under the House of Representatives so far, first a committee is formed and then it is sent to the concerned committee. It will be passed by the committee and then sent to the House of Representatives. From there, it will be passed and sent to the National Assembly.’

Dahal said that this will take time as it will be passed by the National Assembly and returned to the House of Representatives, then it will be passed by the majority of members and sent to the President’s Office. ‘Looking at the preparations, it seems that the necessary act will be brought through an ordinance and then a parliamentary session will be called,’ he said.

The ‘100 agendas on governance reforms’ approved by the Council of Ministers and made public on Saturday mentions making the public procurement process completely digital, transparent and trackable and encouraging competition. ‘To bring clarity to the country’s priority development projects, a national-level project pipeline will be prepared, and all projects will be prioritized on economic, social and environmental grounds,’ the agenda says. ‘The National Planning Commission will complete the task of determining the appropriate modality (government, PPP, foreign investment, etc.) for each project within two months.’

The list mentions that the processes of budget management, land acquisition, environmental impact assessment approval, contract termination, etc. will be simplified by reviewing projects that have been stalled for a long time, are in a sick state and have not been completed on time. ‘A study team will be formed within 30 days to resolve the problem of sick projects, broken contracts and unproductive investments,’ the list says. ‘The said team will evaluate the feasibility and feasibility of the project and make recommendations on whether or not it should be continued.’

Currently, infrastructure expert Sunil Lamsal has taken over the responsibility of the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Urban Development. A lot of infrastructure construction work is done under this ministry. Construction irregularities are also in the contracts under this ministry.

‘If inter-agency coordination is required for the construction and operation of any project, the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers will immediately coordinate and facilitate,’ the list states, ‘In order to make the implementation of national pride and large strategic projects quick, timely and quality, the process related to land acquisition, compensation determination, tree felling and approval of environmental impact assessment reports will be conducted under the ‘fast track mechanism’.’

The agenda also mentions that the project will be implemented by coordinating with all the relevant bodies to implement an integrated and automated approval system, and to eliminate unnecessary delays and duplicate processes. It is stated that direct monitoring and facilitation will be carried out by the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers to resolve obstacles in the implementation of the project.

In order to end the delays seen in the implementation of national and priority infrastructure projects and repeated failures in the contract process, a law will be formulated within 30 days to directly implement projects that have not been awarded contracts more than twice or have failed the contract process through a government infrastructure construction company. The government's agenda mentions that the necessary resources, manpower and equipment will be managed for the company.

The agenda also includes the implementation of a 'data-based end-to-end procurement monitoring' system within 90 days to solve the problems of irregularities, misuse of variation orders and delays due to lack of tracking at various stages from project selection to payment.