KABUL - The National Procurement Commission (NPC Has Approved Eight Contracts at A Meeting President Over By President Ashraf Ghani, the Presidential Palace said Sunday.
A statement from the palace to Pajhwok Afghan News said the contracts were signed on Saturday evening.
Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) John F. Sopko was also invited to the meeting as observer, the statement said.
Pointing to the latest Transparency International (TI) report that saw Afghanistan improving the most by four points in the global corruption index, President Ghani congratulated and appreciated the NPC members for bringing reforms to the procurement system.
The NPC members attending the meeting also thanked the president and leaders of the commission for better leadership and strong support, and promised to work more for transparency and fighting against corruption.
The NPC also approved eight recommended contracts worth 7.4 billion afghanis while returned 11 other contracts for a review and technical research.
The contracts approved included designing and construction of Shadyan Tangi Dam of Balkh province and Kali Dam of Samangan province as well as reconstruction of Shaflan Canal in Pashton Zarghon district of Herat province.
Amendments to the Yatim Tapa Irrigation Dam construction and embankment of Amu River in Takhar province were also approved.
Supplying IT equipment to the Kabul Polytechnic University, Kabul Medical University and higher education institutes of Parwan and Maidan Wardak provinces as well as providing fuel to the protection and care section of the Ministry of Interior (MoI) were also among other contracts approved.
Most of the projects the NPC returned included designing and construction of dams in Paktia, Khost, Laghman, Bamyan, Daikundi, Parwan, Farah, Badghis, Taghar, Kandahar and Uruzgan provinces.
President Ghani, discussing the projects, said construction of dams was one of the primary needs of the Afghan people. He said the NCP should work hard not to let someone play with such important projects.
Ghani said major private Afghan companies with high capacity and performance should be given chance to compete in bidding process for implementation of development projects.
The NCP meeting was participated by Second Vice-President Mohammad Sarwar Danish, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, ministers of finance, economy and justice, SIGAR, a number of parliament members and other officials. (Pajhwok)