TALLINN, 13 September 2002 - When auditing public procurement organized for the maintenance of public roads the State Audit Office found out that country road offices have acted in compliance with the Public Procurement Act when contracting for materials and services required for road maintenance. At the same time several important risks possible resulting in negligence of the maintenance of public roads were not managed during contracting.
The contracting for public procurement was audited as according to the plans of the Ministry of Transport and Communications county road offices are supposed to give up the maintenance of public roads with their own labor and start contracting for public roads maintenance by concluding long-term contracts with trading companies. Therefore, one of the purposes of the audit mission was to analyze the situation resulting if the services were to be purchased from private sector in a volume larger than before and the resultant risks to be managed.
As road maintenance work is being contracted for a private enterprise is expected to complete the work in volume contracted for to provide for the maintenance of the condition of the roads. The audit mission concluded that the road conditioning requirements, currently in force and the instructions for the classification of road maintenance work are appropriate in case the maintenance of public roads is completed by county road offices. As contracts are concluded with private companies more attention should be paid to risk management. For example the companies are being paid not work the work performed but for maintaining the roads in a certain conditions while the contracts do not include any provisions prescribing sanctions for cases the contractor fails to meet the requirements.
Sven Soiver
Press Representative of State Audit Office
Telephone: (372) 640 0787
GSM: (372) 53 414464
E-mail: [email protected]
-
Posted:
9/13/2002 12:00 AM
-
Last Update:
10/15/2015 9:58 AM
-
Last Review:
10/15/2015 9:58 AM