An Evaluation of Barriers obstructing the Applicability of Standard Bidding Documents (SBDs) in Public Procurement of Iraq

Abstract

Abstract According to Order Number 87 of 2004 which had been issued by Dissolved Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, the Ministry of Planning MoP in the Iraqi Government started its efforts toward enhancing and developing the federal level of Public Procurement System by issuing a stream of procedures to the contractual entities (Standard Bidding Documents SBDs, procurement Planning Forms, Performance Indicators, Guide of Archiving Process… etc.). The financial crises which hit the international economy and the noted reduction in crude oil prices and the war against ISIS on the local level reflected an obvious shortage in funding process to the implementation of the project to the very minimums. At 2018 the Iraqi government allocated more funds to compensate the shortage in initial services projects at a time when the SBDs became mandatory to apply by all the public contractual entities, as a result, the local contractors were not able to meet the standard requirements and criteria of a modern experiment in the bidding process which led to more delay by re-announcing these projects. This research is to determine if the Iraqi contractual environment can be considered as healthy and supportive for the SBDs or not? Nine evaluation criteria for the SBDs projects were listed in the questionnaire targeted 100 private sector respondents and 130 public contractual entities, the mean comparison and relative important index RII were used to rank and match respondent agreement on assessing the importance mentioned criteria evaluation. The findings indicated that all respondents had agreed on ranking the average of annual revenues and financial liquidity as the top hurdles that need to be considered by MoP to ensure the success of the SBDs system.