By Mohamed Osman
DOHA: The Central Municipal Council (CMC) yesterday recommended that strict monitoring system be set up for imported construction materials and said close coordination with authorities is needed to finalise the list of construction materials produced locally.
The civic Services and Facilities Committee hosted Dr Mohammed bin Saif Al Kuwari, Assistant Undersecretary for Standards and Specifications at the Ministry of Environment, at his seventh meeting to discuss means of monitoring imported construction materials. The panel forwarded these recommendations to the CMC chairman.
The CMC passed in its 10 meeting three recommendations, the first addressed to the Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning to activate previous recommendations of the council to establish a public entity for assets passed on November 11, 2013.
The second recommendation was directed to the Public Work Authority (Ashghal) to study the possibility of reassessment and rehabilitation of all contracting companies and design and engineering consultancies which have contracts with Ashghal to update the list, in addition to making assessments a regular, continuous process.
The CMC suggested a study of the possibility of preparing a blacklist of contracting companies, consultancy and designing offices that violate contracts, and standards and specifications to prohibit them from taking part in any new tendering process.
The blacklist should be circulated to all government entities, it said.
In its third recommendation to Ashghal, the CMC demanded that it creates a database of contracting companies and engineering offices and make it accessible online for users.
The database must include projects implemented by each company, years of experience and performance evaluation, besides other information. The recommendation was based on a proposal presented by Hamad bin Lahdan Al Mohannadi, Deputy Chairman of CMC, and Representative of constituency No. 26.
The proposal was discussed at the seventh meeting of the CMC and forwarded to the committee for discussion and recommendations.
Recent flooding and rainwater logging on roads and in subways and the leakage of water in many government buildings highlighted the importance of establishing a supervisory body to apply strict monitoring system on contracting companies, Al Mohannadi said in his proposal.
There is also the need for regular assessment of these companies and preparing a blacklist to include all firms that violate contracts or do not comply with standards and specifications set by the government, he added. CMC Chairman Mohammed bin Hamoud Al Shafi opened the session and highlighted the loss of young lives last week in traffic accidents, stressing the need for more efforts to prevent such tragedies.
The Peninsula
