Cabinet approves 2021 public-private partnership bylaw

15-4-2021

The Cabinet, in its session held Wednesday, chaired by Prime Minister, Dr. Bisher Khasawneh, approved the bylaw for 2021 public-private sectors partnership.
The approval of the bylaw comes in implementation of the provisions of Article (20) of the 2020 Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Projects Law No.17, which would set the stages of partnership projects and their procedures, and the obligations of the government and contracting party thourought the process.
Per the document, the bylaw also defines the stages and procedures of small-sized partnership projects, whose capital costs are less than the amount determined by the Council of Ministers.
Setting a clear mechanism, the bylaw also clarifies the bidding procedures for partnership projects, in a manner that ensures equality and transparency, clarity and comprehensiveness of tendering documents, and providing the tender-related information to the public.
The bylaw defines the basic terms and conditions that must be included in the partnership contract concluded between the contracting party and the project company, and describes the related provisions and procedures, and the rights and mutual obligations of its parties, in order to preserve public money by defining the basic conditions that are not negotiable, which the project company is required to abide by over the duration of the partnership project.
The bylaw also aims to regulate the mechanisms and conditions for implementing partnership projects submitted by the private sector through direct offers.
On a related decision, the Cabinet approved the the bank account bylaw of the 2021 PPP projects, in implementation of the provisions of Article (8) of the 2020 Public-Private Partnership Projects Law No. 17.
The PPP account bylaw seeks to regulate all matters related to financing partnership projects between the public and private sectors, to form a committee to supervise related expenditures, define the committee's functions and powers, adopt qualification criteria for the purposes of receiving funding, and the procedures and conditions for funding applications.