The Contractors and Consultants Classification System requires each engineering and construction company in Abu Dhabi to register their related businesses.
All companies in the engineering and contraction sector holding a valid Abu Dhabi license are required to get classification from the Abu Dhabi Department of Town Planning Municipalities.
This Classification ensures that every engineering and contracting company in Abu Dhabi is qualified and experienced enough to participate in tenders in the capital of the UAE.
This is especially important in regard to ADNOC registrations.
It sounds pretty basic like, “it is an activity or handle of categorizing something”. But it is not as simple as that. When it comes to the companies that are authorized to conduct contracting or engineering activities in Abu Dhabi, they must get classification from the Abu Dhabi Department of Town Planning Municipalities. This is done to guarantee that the company in question is capable and qualified to take part in a tender process in Abu Dhabi.
The job of the Classification Department in Abu Dhabi is to evaluate the capability of local contracting and engineering firms before they are given the permission to participate in tenders within the capital. This evaluation is carried out in understanding with well-defined criterias as mentioned within regulation Number 1 for the year 2009 and the contractor’s classification regulation Number 2 for the year 2009.
The classification process is not a simply process nor is it based on routine or automatic approvals. The First Category and Second Category Classification depends upon the companies’ application. There will be a review by a panel of experts regarding the company’s technical qualifications, project experience, capital and assets value, quality, health and safety team, accounting team, the experience and qualifications, etc. If your company is planning to bid for high value contracts, the requirements will be quite arduous and therefore the classification process should be handled by professionals.
No, unless your comapny is willing to remove all activities that require classification from the business license. But this will, of course, greatly limit the scope of your company’s business activities.
Unfortunately, in many cases, the classification requirements could not be met or were too expensive and hence companies had to take the decision to remove the activities that require classification alltogether from their license and hence give up on part of their business.
The official directions of the classification requirements date back to 2009 but the execution of the said directions has been postponed until 2014. In 2018 a set of new regulations were introduced together with the final implementation of the older ones from 2009.
If your company´s activities are engineering or contracting you should immediately find out whether the activities on your trade license require the above named classification in order to be able to participate in tenders.
If you are planning to start a new business with any of the activites in question, you have to find out beforehand if your comapny will be able to pass through the strict classification process.
There are two different Classifications, one is only for Contractors and the other one is exclusively for Engineering companies. Both sectors share similar classification requirements though, which include:
Contractors Classifications Categories - Each category requires a certain set of criterias that must be met:
For example: The sixth category would allow the company to bid on tenders up to a value of AED 7mil and it requires the company to have a AED 300,000 balance sheet capital assets. On top of this, the company has to employ one full time engineer with minimum 4 years experience. This is just one of the many points that have to be met.
Engineering Consultancy Firms Classifications Categories - Each category requires a certain set of criterias that must be met:
For example: For each category there is a certain number of employed engineers. They must be employed directly by the company and must have a minimum number of years of experience. The company must show ISO accreditations and suitable support staff.
