SECTION 42

(1) The independent observer shall be a natural or corporate body recruited through competitive bidding by the public contracts regulatory body to ensure compliance with regulations, transparency rules and principles of equity in the public contracts award process. (2) He shall attend sessions of tenders boards as well as the deliberations of bids evaluation sub-committees for contract amounts of not less than 50 000 000 (fifty million) CFAF in order to: (a) assess the process by reporting, at each stage, non-compliance with the regulations, transparency rules and principles of equity; (b) indicate practices contrary to good governance in the procedure for the award of public contracts especially influence peddling, conflict of interest and insider dealing. (3) The independent observer shall receive a copy of all documentation relating to the files submitted to the tenders board under whose authority he is placed. (4) He shall forward to the public contracts regulatory body, the Project Owner and the Chairperson of the tenders board concerned within 72 (seventy-two) hours of the end of the board’s session, a detailed report on the said session and that of the Bid Evaluation Sub-committee, where necessary. (5) The Chairperson of the tenders board and the Project Owner or the Delegated Project Owner may, where necessary, notify the organ in charge of regulating public contracts of their observations within 72 (seventy-two) hours of receipt of the independent observer’s report. (6) On the basis of the reports of the independent observer or the regulatory body, the Authority in charge of public contracts may cancel a contract awarded in violation of regulations or in disregard of the rules of transparency and the principle of equity.