Kathmandu, Aug. 8 -- The government conceded to almost all key demands of public builders by amending the Public Procurement Regulation three times in the last two and a half months.

When the government made the sixth amendment to the regulation on May 13, it had barred the contractors charged with irregularities by the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority from taking part in public contract bids, limited the contract extension period to half of the original project deadline, and introduced a provision where construction companies could participate in public contract bids only up to the amount four times their average annual turnover of the past five years.

The amendment drew criticism from public contractors despite the P...