This report was prepared by the Assurance Process team for CoST – Ethiopia and focuses on the Gashena-Lalibela-Sekota Road Project, found in the northern Ethiopia, in Amhara national Regional State.

This Assurance Report identified a number of key issues, such as the difficulty in accessing relevant documents, the fairness of the procurement participation rules, issues related to the contract scope and compliance with contract requirements. For construction purpose, it was divided into two contracts; Contract 1 – Gashena Bilbala road covering nearly 90km and Contract 2, Bilbala Sekota road project. The focus of this study includes review of the procurement procedures for design consultancy service, supervision and contract administration consultancy service, and works contract with further focus on the implementation of the project with respect to the works and supervision service contracts.

The report finds that the Procuring Entity needs to; reduce longer procurement durations and number of
amendments to the bidding documents; revise the shortlisting and qualification requirements of consultancy
service contracts that will promote new incoming service providers and the project participants need to accelerate the progress of the work and handle the project overruns by solving the problems which hinder the contractor’s performance.