Road
Building Groups |
Road
Building Groups (RBGs) are selected from the poorest
households and endorsed by community gatherings
organised at strategic locations of road alignments.
Each RBG has up to 20 men and women, who walk from
their homes each day for work, with a maximum travel
time for any RBG member set at 2 hours. They work
on average for 5-6 hours per day. Special Building
Groups (SBGs) are male only groups that camp close
to the construction sites. They are used in selected
locations where there are not sufficient RBGs, or
where there is significant quantities if rock excavation
or other more difficult work. They are selected
from remaining households within the area of influence,
households from neighbouring Village Development
Committees and other Districts. They work on average
for 8-9 hours per day. RAP has selected 14,770 workers
both in the RBGs and 1830 in SBGs. Most groups have
20 workers registered, though not all workers will
be present on any given day, and an average of 16
workers per group is normal. On an average day in
RAP during the dry season, there are about 11,000
workers, being just less than two-thirds of the
total registered. |
Workers
Welfare
|
Workers
are trained on safety measures at work sites. They
are also provided with safety clothing and equipment
and instruction on safe working and first aid. In
addition, the programme has a self-insurance scheme
for RBG and SBG members. The scale of minimum compensation
has been fixed as per the current norms of Nepal government.
Any injured persons will get timely full compensatory
payments without administrative hassles. Partner NGOs
are given authority to make payment for immediate
treatment and can provide advance amount for further
treatment if recommended by local health technicians.
In addition, special attention has been given to working
mothers for taking care of their children while they
are at work. |
Procurement |
| Tender process |
RAP2
advertises tenders in newspapers, and also within
the RAP website, where tender documents can be downloaded.
The use of the RAP website was introduced in order
to stop intimidation from some parties trying to
limit the number of others collecting tender documents.
On the Bridges Component, RAP2 made use of the e-bidding
process from the Department of Roads. |
| Services |
The
quality and cost based selection (QCBS) procedure
was adopted for the procurement of services of Supervision
Consultants and Non-Governmental Organisations.
Seven Supervision Consultant and fourteen local
NGOs teams were selected and engaged following the
standard practice of service procurement. |
| Goods |
RAP2
procures materials and tools through competitive
bidding procedures from amongst local manufactures
and suppliers. The principles of RAP2 procurement
are to be transparent and obtain value for money.
The WSPimc Code of
Ethics is followed closely by RAP and included
in every tender document. |
Quality
Control |
| Materials |
Galvanised iron wire for gabion baskets, geotextiles, cement, and stone are the main materials that are being used in road construction. Where appropriate, the quality of materials is ensured through testing in the Central Laboratory, Department of Roads. The quality of stone at field level is based on the judgment made at site by the RAP technical staff. |
| Construction |
RAP works with labourers who are initially inexperienced and unskilled. Pre-construction training on construction methods, work measurement, billing and payment, work safety and use of first aid kits is provided to the representatives of RBGs. On-site practical training is given to Sahajkarta (facilitator) and at least one active member from each RBG. This training is then replicated amongst all members of groups. |
| Work measurement
and payment |
Supervision Consultants measure the works done by RBGs, prepare bills and recommend to RAP DTA for RBG payments on monthly basis. To maintain uniformity and ensure quality of works, standard formats of measurement and payment are designed and used in all RAP districts. |
