The fact that Mozambique was colonised by the Portuguese is a major influence that consultants and contractors need to understand. The legal language in Lusophone countries tends to be very different from the language used in Anglophone countries, and the way the laws are constructed is usually very different. Laws are referred to not as "acts", but rather as "laws", "decrees", "regulations" and "codes". Similarly, the reference system of the laws is slightly different, e.g. the law on investment in Mozambique may be defined in terms of laws, decrees and regulations. Furthermore, a set of regulations is not approved separately, but only comes into effect in terms of a decree or law (e.g. Law No. 5/87 or Decree No. 7/87). Apart from these differences in terminology, Mozambique has a Constitution, much like most Anglophone countries have.
In the Mozambique context, it is necessary for companies to be registered in Mozambique if they aim to work as independent entities (i.e. not as part of another Mozambique-registered company or consortium). If a company is not registered in Mozambique, it is usually disqualified from working on its own at all in Mozambique, and the government departments will not accept a tender from such a company.
There is not one central government ministry overseeing the tendering process in Mozambique. The bulk of the tenders published are governed by two main systems of procurement: one falling under the Ministry of Planning & Finance's Directorate of State Assets (Patrimonio do Estado) and the other falling under the Ministry of Public Housing. The 2 systems operate under completely separate legislation, and require registration on separate databases. Although there are these 2 main procurement systems, the devil is in the detail. The situation is so complex that under one ministry (the Ministry of Education) there are 4 different procurement policies that apply. However, with support from external donor funders, the Mozambique government has started to undertake a general review of the many procurement policies currently in place.
Apart from the legislated or practical procurement policies being implemented in the various government departments, there is a general tendering practice that is governed by ordinary Mozambican law. This means that in a case of an unfairly adjudicated tender, an aggrieved bidder would appeal directly to the law courts for redress, rather than to a Central Tender Board.
The Mozambique authorities insist that they do not have any preferential procurement policies. Experience shows, however, that government departments and municipalities generally have a few local Mozambique companies that tender successfully for all their contracts. In other countries, such a tendency would be seen to be encouraging corruption, elitism and nepotism. Within the Mozambique context, however, the demonstration by a consultant that he or she can deliver under the normal constraints and difficulties of local conditions is regarded as more important than having an impressive international CV. Although such practices discourage competition from newcomers or young consultants, they do not prevent competition absolutely. It simply means that newcomers have to work that much harder to break into this new market. The Mozambique tendering system would appear to rest on professional relationships built on "trust". Fluency in Portuguese is essential for working effectively in Mozambique.
Although preferential procurement policies are not in place, it is common practice for the Mozambique government department calling for the tender to write into the contract (once the tender has been awarded) that the contractor or consulting company must undertake a subsidiary social upliftment project simultaneously with the building of the main contract, especially in the rural areas where particular needs exist. The extra subsidiary project is usually drawn up by means of negotiation between the successful bidder and the government department concerned.
Government tenders are published in the daily government newspaper, Noticias, which comes out every day from Monday to Saturday. There does not appear to be a glut of tender advertisements in the Friday edition of Noticias, and the tender ads appear evenly throughout the week. Some of the larger tenders are advertised in the South African and other international media as well.
As the Mozambique government is financially quite cash-strapped, many of the new contracts put out for tender are funded by the World Bank or other external funders. Such contracts are usually open to international competitive bidding, but sometimes these tenders favour companies from the funding agency's home country. This means that if DANIDA publishes a tender, a company based in Denmark is likely to receive a preference. The amount payable for tender documents issued by international aid agencies is usually quoted in US dollars.
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