Local Government Councils Abuse Procurement Rules

Tanzania Daily News (Dar es Salaam)

Sebastian Mrindoko

16 May 2011

District and town councils are lagging behind in adhering to the procurement system of common use items and services that seeks to slash unnecessary costs while maximising the value for money.

This was said on Friday by the Chief Executive Officer of the Government Procurement Services Agency (GPSA) Mr Josephat Mwambega, in a press briefing held in Dar es Salaam while introducing the new procurement mechanism.

The said councils he said have continued to incur extra costs to advertise tenders on equipment and services already done by the GPSA on their behalf as directed by the law. “This is against government plans to cut down expenditures,” he said.

Instead, he said some stakeholders have been casting blames that GPSA is meddling on their legal obligation of tender advertisement, according to the procurement laws. Ignorance of the new system might be one of the reasons for failure to implement it.

He said one of the GPSA obligations was to oversee common procurement system of equipment and services on behalf of the government. He said when the new system became operational, 3,397 suppliers were awarded contracts to provide or deliver various services in one year period.

As of March, this year, 14bn/- had been spent on the supply of equipment and provision of services. But he said the amount is too little compared to the amount set aside in the government budget for procurement of equipment and services, an indication that only few public institutions have complied with the new system.

Procurement in public sector takes over 70 per cent of government budget. He said about 60 procurement entities have expressed desire to use the Framework Agreements or contracts provided by the GPSA in the 2011/12.

In the first place, he said the public institutions are required to identify their basic needs for the whole financial year to be entered into the new system considering the coding and classification list prepared by the PPRA and GPSA.

The GPSA would then identify the equipment and services to be procured and decide on suitable tendering mechanism that is transparent, open and competitive in order to attain the value for money.

Despite sluggish adoption of the new procurement system among public institutions, Mr Mwambega said business community has welcomed it. For example, the numbers of suppliers have jumped to 9,800 in 2010/11 from 4,000 in 2009/10.

He said also Kenya and Ghana have expressed the desire to learn and adopt the new system due to its efficiencies in cutting down costs and achieving value for money.

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