DAMMAM, 12 June 2003 — Building contractors in the Eastern Province have urged Saudi Aramco to be more transparent in dealing with local companies when tendering projects.
In a meeting with Aramco yesterday at the Eastern Province Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the contractors expressed their dissatisfaction over Aramco’s treatment of some of them. They urged that bids should be public rather than behind closed doors and said the contractors should get a chance to discover the status of their bids.
The old secretive system was not beneficial for either of the parties, they said.
They also alleged that local companies bagged no more than 9 percent of the contracts tendered annually.
The contractors also complained that some officials treated local companies as amateurs rather than professionals and were under the notion that local companies would be unable to complete the projects without close supervision.
But prominent businessman Khaled Al-Turki stressed that many large companies in the region owed their success to Saudi Aramco. He said Aramco was non-partisan and assessed bids purely on their merits.
Aramco had made a major contribution in the growth and development of the private sector, he said. However, a degree of transparency was required, he added.
Another prominent businessman, Othman Al-Othman, said the meeting could play a very constructive role as it had helped to reduce the gap between Saudi Aramco and the local construction industry.
