Public Procurement Service to Mandate Separate Ordering of Major Equipment for Public Ships Starting Next Year

The Public Procurement Service announced on the 20th that it has revised the 'Public Vessel Contract Guidelines' to mandate the separate ordering of major ship equipment starting next year.

Until now, for public vessels, major equipment such as engines and generators, which were finalized as specific products through the equipment selection committee of the demand agency at the time of ordering, were ordered together with shipbuilding. In this process, shipbuilders had to bear the burden caused by fixed major equipment prices and differences in bid rates.

However, with the revision of the Public Vessel Contract Guidelines, it will be mandatory to separately order major equipment in cases where the demand agency's equipment selection committee has finalized major equipment as specific products through a qualification review recommendation.

This structure is similar to the procurement of construction materials by public works, where the demand agency directly purchases major equipment and then supplies it to the shipbuilder, which is expected to alleviate the burden on small and medium-sized shipbuilders.

However, the Public Procurement Service plans to implement the separate ordering obligation from January 1 next year to prevent confusion among demand agencies and related industries that have already completed their ordering plans for this year.

Kang Hee-hoon, Director of New Growth Procurement Planning, stated, “The Public Procurement Service will continuously identify and improve contract practices where the 'government' holds a superior position, and will spare no support to help small and medium-sized industries grow in a stable business environment.”