The Ministry of Public Works and Housing, in cooperation with the Jordanian Transparency Center, organized, on Saturday, a dialogue session entitled “Transparency in Bidding, Contracting, and the Housing Sector in Jordan,” moderated by MP Atef Kawar.

The head of the Jordanian Construction Contractors Syndicate, Engineer Wael Toukan, said during the session that referring the bid at the lowest price is the beginning of corruption, and that there is a discrepancy between the contractor’s readiness and the readiness of supervision, as the contractor has advanced a lot about supervision with technical and practical expertise, which causes an imbalance in making the right decision and incurring losses for the employer

He stressed the importance and respect for the clause appointing the Dispute Resolution Board to reduce losses on the employer, appointing a separate technical office to audit bids, studying preliminary design documents, studying implementation documents, inspecting the facility and equipment items, and then preparing the final report for the technical audit, in addition to examining the works that are being completed. In the period of good performance guarantee

Toukan pointed out that there is a lack of regulation in the contracting sector, especially in the private sector, and that there is a failure to follow up on projects in the housing sector, and that penalties should be increased for the engineer, contractor and business owner.

The Assistant Secretary-General of the Jordanian Engineers Association, Eng. Muhammad Abu Afifa, said that to enhance transparency in bids, a system based on quality rather than price should be used in bidding, standardizing procedures and setting a unified reference in the public sector, and using modern technology and systems to raise the level of engineering.

He pointed out that it is necessary to change the middle equation used in bidding and to adopt more efficient methods based on international references, and to create a data bank in the Jordanian engineering sector that is considered a reference for the sector.

Architect and urban planning expert, Engineer Murad Kalaldeh, stressed the need to approve the national urban strategy, and the need to establish a specialized court (the real estate court) to decide on contentious issues that arise between stakeholders in the allocation of land and building licensing, and linking the initial approval of construction projects until their issuance with the organizational and detailed structural plans In order to allow for a balanced distribution of population and housing on all lands of the country and to reduce the polarization of the city of Amman.