Bras de fer DER/FJ contre SERTEM : L'ARCOP a tranché pour le marché du Centre Mohamed Bin Zayed
The Dispute Settlement Committee (CRD) of the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (ARCOP) has rejected the appeal filed by SERTEM Group against the provisional award of the contract for the construction of the Mohamed Bin Zayed Entrepreneurship and Innovation Center in Mermoz. In its decision of May 7, 2026, ARCOP gave its approval for the continuation of the procedure initiated by the General Delegation for Rapid Entrepreneurship for Women and Youth (DER/FJ).
An initial contract was signed in December 2021 between DER/FJ and SERTEM for the construction of a seven-story building (ground floor + 7 floors + 2 floors) to house the Mohamed Bin Zayed Center. This contract, worth over 17.24 billion FCFA, was terminated on January 8, 2026, by order of the Minister of Finance and Budget.
As part of the project's relaunch, the DER/FJ launched a restricted tender under an emergency procedure after receiving a no-objection notice from the Central Directorate of Public Procurement (DCMP). Following the evaluation of bids, AZHAR International was provisionally awarded the contract for an amount of 17.3 billion FCFA including VAT.
Considering this procedure irregular, SERTEM appealed to ARCOP. The company argued in particular that the use of the emergency procedure was unjustified, that the relaunch of the contract infringed its contractual rights while litigation relating to the termination of the initial contract was still pending, and that the work already carried out had not been taken into account in the new contract.
After review, the CRD dismissed all of these grievances. ARCOP considered that the conditions stipulated in Article 74 of the Public Procurement Code were met, due both to the urgency linked to the accumulated delay in the project's completion and to the observed failure of the previous contractor.
The regulatory body noted in particular that the project was 28 months behind schedule, forcing DER/FJ to continue to bear significant rental costs, estimated at more than one billion FCFA, to the detriment of financing innovative projects for young people and women.
Regarding the dispute over the termination of the initial contract, the CRD reiterated that once the termination is pronounced, it releases the contracting authority from its obligations, unless a court decides otherwise. Therefore, in the absence of a court decision suspending or annulling the termination, the DER/FJ was entitled to launch a new procurement procedure.
Finally, regarding the work already completed, ARCOP considered that its value was implicitly taken into account, specifying that the new contractor could only be paid for the services it actually performs. It urged DER/FJ to ensure a strict separation of payments between work completed by SERTEM and that to be carried out by AZHAR International.
Consequently, the Dispute Settlement Committee declared SERTEM's appeal unfounded, rejected all its claims and ordered the continuation of the procurement process for the construction of the Mohamed Bin Zayed Centre.
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