The Ministry of Education in Egypt has decided to use the old tried and tested practice for public procurement of textbooks. The contracts will be awarded to each printing company based on their capacity and size rather than price. Last year the former Ministry of Education headed by Dr. Ibrahim Ghoneim resorted to public tendering. The estimated value of the whole operation is 1.44 billion Egyptian pounds.
Based on the new practice each printing order consists of 6 million copies with fixed price, which will be then awarded to different printers based on their equipment and printing capabilities. While in public tender systems only few printers who had the financial capacity were able to get the bulk of the orders.
During past years the Ministry faced long delays in delivering the textbooks. But Dr. Mahmoud Aboul-Nasr the new Minister hopes with the new system student will be able to receive books on time.
