SECTION 5

Within the meaning of this Code, the following definitions shall apply: (a) Administration’s contracting partner or contract holder: any natural person or corporate body party to the contract, responsible for the execution of the services provided for in the contract; (b) Allottee: any natural person or corporate body party to the contract, responsible for providing the services provided for in the contract, as well as their duly appointed representative(s), staff, successor(s) and/or agent(s). The allottee is the Administration’s contracting partner. (c) Authority in charge of public contracts: authority heading the competent government service in respect of public contracts; (d) Bid evaluation sub-committee: ad hoc committee set up by the Tenders Board for the technical and financial evaluation and ranking of bids; (e) Bid: written deed whereby a bidder for a public contract makes known his conditions and undertakes to comply with the applicable specifications; (f) Business grouping: a group of enterprises or service providers bound by a single agreement and represented by one of them, acting as common agent. The business grouping may be joint and/or several; (g) Contract amendment: contractual deed amending or supplementing certain clauses of the initial contract to adapt it to developments subsequent to its signature; (h) Contract amount: total amount of the expenses and remuneration for services forming the subject of the contract, subject to any addition or deduction which may be done by virtue of the provisions of the contract; (i) Contract Engineer: public law natural person or corporate body accredited by the Project Owner or the Delegated Project Owner to monitor contract execution. He is responsible for technical and financial monitoring. As such, he assesses, decides and gives instructions having no financial incidence and reports to the Contract Manager; (j) Contract Manager: natural person accredited by the Project Owner or the Delegated Project Owner to provide general administrative, financial and technical assistance at the definition, preparation, execution and acceptance stages of the services under the contract. He oversees the general management of the execution of services, decides on all the technical and financial provisions and represents the Project Owner or the Delegated Project Owner before dispute settlement bodies; (k) Contract: all the documents referred to in this Code to which reference is expressly made in the general administrative clauses and special administrative clauses of the contract. It shall be a single document written on both sides, approved by the contract holder and signed by the Contracting Authority; (l) Contracting authority: natural person authorized to manage the contracting process and sign the related contracts. They are project owners and delegated project owners. (m)Delegated Project Owner: person acting as representative of the Project Owner and performing some of the duties of the latter. They include Regional Governors, Senior Divisional Officers and Heads of Cameroon’s diplomatic missions abroad, empowered to conclude and sign contracts financed from votes delegated by a Project Owner and, where applicable, the manager of a project benefiting from external funding; (n) Expert: natural person approved by the public contracts regulatory body to provide technical assistance to stakeholders in the domain of public contracts; (o) Follow-up and Technical Validation Committee: a committee comprising members chosen by virtue of their domain of expertise and responsible for 4 monitoring and validating the services provided within the scope of intellectual service contracts worth at least 100 000 000 (one hundred million) CFA francs; (p) Foreign aid: grant or loan from a foreign country or financial institution; (q) Grassroots community organization: group of local populations in the form of a legalized association or civil society organization aimed at achieving local development and which executes labour-intensive works; (r) Independent auditor: audit firm of established reputation recruited through restricted competitive bidding by the contracts regulatory body to conduct ex-post audit of contracts signed over the year ended and executed or being executed; (s) Independent observer: consultant recruited by the Administration to ensure compliance with regulations, transparency rules and principles of equity in public procurement; (t) Intellectual service contract: contract intended mainly for the provision of intellectual services whose predominant element is not physically quantifiable or expendable; (u) Jobbing order: a public contract worth at least 5 000 000 (five million) and less than 50 000 000 (fifty million) CFA francs; (v) Labour-intensive approach (HIMO): approach to the execution of works which combines, in an optimum manner, the use of light equipment with resources available locally in terms of local manpower and materials, whenever technically feasible and economically profitable; (w) Offer: all the administrative, technical and financial documents that constitute the proposal of the bidder; (x) Project Manager: public or private law natural person or corporate body designated by the Project Owner or the Delegated Project Owner to defend the latter’s interests at the definition, preparation, execution and acceptance stages of the services under the contract; (y) Project maturity: process during which a project idea is developed based on appropriate studies to express as accurately as possible the requirements for its implementation. It involves preparing all the elements that help to take into account all the administrative, technical, financial, socio-economic and environmental aspects of projects; (z) Project Owner: minister or person ranking as such, chief executive of a regional or local authority, general manager and manager of a public establishment, representing the beneficiary of the services provided for in the contract; (aa) Public contract: written document concluded in accordance with the provisions of this Code by which a contractor, supplier or service provider enters into an agreement with the State, a regional or local authority or a public establishment to carry out work or to supply goods or services against payment; (bb) Public Contracts Petitions Review Committee: entity set up within the public contracts regulatory body to examine petitions from bidders who feel aggrieved and to propose appropriate measures to the Authority in charge of Public Contracts, where necessary; (cc) Purchase order: procedure for procuring goods or services whose amount is less than 5 000 000 (five million) CFA francs; (dd) Purchasing pool: public or private law entity subject to the provisions contained herein which procures supplies or services intended for contracting authorities; (ee) Quantifiable service contract: service contract concerning, among other things, security services, cleaning or maintenance of public buildings or green spaces, repair or maintenance of office furniture and equipment or computer software and hardware, insurance, excluding health insurance, etc.; (ff) Request for quotation: simplified procedure for the consultation of enterprises for the award of some jobbing orders; 5 (gg) Service contract: contract concluded with service providers for the provision of intangible services whose predominant element is quantifiable or unquantifiable; (hh) Service provider: natural person or corporate body, allottee of a pubic contract; (ii) Service: works, supplies and services which are the subject of a contract; (jj) Special contract: contract which does not fully or partially comply with the provisions of contracts awarded through competitive bidding or negotiated contract in view of their specificity mainly related to security; (kk) State control: process by which the Administration decides to execute works using its own material and human resources. The Project Owner is also the Project Manager. It deals directly with suppliers and its budget covers all the economic and financial risks. State control may be total, concerning all the works to be executed or partial, concerning only part of the works; (ll) Structure: any construction, facility, building, assembly and, in general, any tangible property created or transformed through the execution of works; (mm) Supply contract: contract concluded with suppliers for the purchase, lease or hire-purchase of a product or equipment; (nn) Unquantifiable service contract: service contract concerning, among other things, the delegation of public services, health insurance, advertisement, auditing of accounts, organization of training seminars, etc.; (oo) Works contract: contract concluded with contractors for the construction, reconstruction, demolition, repair and renovation of any building or structure, including worksite preparation, earthworks, installation of equipment or materials, decoration and finishing, as well as ancillary services, where the value of such services does not exceed that of the works themselves.