Public Procurement Service Supports Flood Recovery Sites with 'Emergency Procurement Guidelines'

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The Public Procurement Service announced on the 13th that it has prepared an 'Emergency Procurement Guideline' to facilitate the rapid procurement of recovery, quarantine, and relief supplies for flood-affected areas, and to reduce the contractual burdens on affected procurement companies, which will be implemented temporarily for two months.

The guideline first shortens and simplifies the related procurement procedures so that demand institutions in the affected areas can quickly purchase flood-related supplies.

The core is to allow materials and construction for flood recovery and relief to be executed through emergency bidding, while minimizing the bidding period by utilizing the negotiated contract system.

For example, in the case of general bidding, the announcement period for materials and construction bids is around 7 to 40 days, but for emergency bidding, the announcement period is shortened to 5 days. This is expected to be a factor in ensuring that the supply of materials and construction needed at flood recovery sites is carried out in a timely manner.

Additionally, delivery inspections for quarantine-related items such as masks and insecticides, which usually take 1 to 2 weeks, will be temporarily exempted to enable immediate supply of goods when demand institutions require them to prevent the spread of infectious diseases.

The Public Procurement Service will also promote measures to minimize the burden on procurement companies facing difficulties in contract fulfillment due to flood damage through the guideline.

This includes exempting or reducing liquidated damages (amounts paid to creditors when debtors fail to fulfill contractual obligations within the contract period) for companies unable to deliver within the contract period, and extending delivery deadlines in some cases.

In particular, in cases where normal contract fulfillment is impossible due to severe damage, the Public Procurement Service explained that it will reduce the burden on companies by exempting penalties such as contract deposit recovery and unfair trade sanctions resulting from contract non-fulfillment after receiving explanations from the companies.

Jung Moo-kyung, Administrator of the Public Procurement Service, said, “We will focus our procurement capabilities to ensure that flood damage recovery is carried out swiftly and that safety maintenance and quarantine activities in the flood-affected areas proceed without disruption.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.