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A Legal and Operational Assessment of Tender Cancellation, Re-Tendering, and Bid Protest Review in Iranian Public Procurement: Explaining Structural and Procedural Inefficiencies
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Sevda Moradi   , Majid Parchamijalal |
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Abstract: (31 Views) |
The Law on Holding Tenders, enacted in 2004, constitutes the principal legal framework governing public procurement in Iran. It provides mechanisms for conducting tenders, evaluating bidders, cancelling and re-tendering procurement processes, and reviewing complaints in order to promote competition, transparency, and the protection of public resources. Nevertheless, repeated tender cancellations and re-tendering, together with the limited practical effectiveness of the complaint-review mechanism, remain significant challenges in the implementation of public procurement procedures. This study examines the factors and mechanisms underlying the operational inefficiency of Articles 24 and 25 of Iran’s Law on Holding Tenders. The study adopted a qualitative approach based on systematic grounded theory. Data were collected through 10 in-depth semi-structured interviews with experts who had direct experience of government tendering procedures and were analyzed through open, axial, and selective coding. The analysis generated 436 initial open codes, five main categories, and one core category. The findings indicate that the inefficiency of Articles 24 and 25 cannot be attributed to a single cause. Rather, it results from the interaction of interpretive ambiguities, deficiencies in tender documentation and cost estimates, economic and budgetary volatility, inadequate professional competence among procurement practitioners, risk-averse organizational culture, and structural constraints in the complaint-review mechanism. The core category was identified as “structural–procedural inefficiency arising from legal ambiguities, inadequate implementer competence, and financial instability.” The legal analysis indicates that some problems perceived in practice as deficiencies of the law stem from incomplete implementation of existing rules, whereas others arise from gaps or ambiguities in the design of specific legal mechanisms. Accordingly, improving the effectiveness of the public procurement system requires clarification of Article 24 and related rules, stronger independence, transparency, and accountability in complaint review, standardized evaluation and documentation procedures, and enhanced professional competence among procurement practitioners.
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| Keywords: Iranian public procurement, Law on Holding Tenders, Article 24, Article 25, Tender cancellation, Re-tendering, Bid protest review, Legal and operational assessment. |
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Type of Study: Research |
Subject:
Special
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