Govt units continue to breach procurement rules

Apr 06, 2015

Government entities have continued to breach the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets (PPDA) procedures, with the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) being the worst offender.

By Faridah Kulabako

Government entities have continued to breach the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets (PPDA) procedures, with the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) being the worst offender.

This was revealed by the PPDA executive director, Cornelia Sabiiti, during the 10th procurement cadre forum for central government entities.

The forum sought to review the progress of implementation of the procurement reforms and share experiences with key stakeholders on the impact of the amendments to the PPDA law, which took effect last year.

Presenting findings, Sabiiti noted that a procurement audit undertaken by PPDA revealed UNEB was the worst performer in procurement and disposal of assets.

This was due to the use of inappropriate procurement methods such as direct procurement without adequate justification, usurping the role of the accounting officer without delegated authority, failure to conduct evaluation in a transparent manner and poor contract management.

The above actions worked against it, thereby sealing off the list of the 10 worst performing procuring and disposing entities among the 37 government entities.

UNEB spokesperson Hamis Kaheru declined to comment, saying he has not seen the report.

The other worst performing entities include Uganda National Bureau of Standards, Ministry of Works and Transport, Uganda NationalRoads Authority, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ministry of Health and Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development.

Sabiiti said the combined costs associated with failure to conduct evaluation in procurements in all government entities were estimated at sh1.3b.

Without naming any specific entity, he added that poor procurement planning resulted in 17 procurements estimated at sh25.6b to either not be executed or to be conducted outside the procurement plan.

While the use of wrong procurement methods without adequate justification was estimated at sh887.4m.

The audit report further noted that about 57 high value procurements estimated at sh2.3b were done using the direct procurement method without sufficient justification.

While 12 entities were said to have altered evaluation criteria that was estimated at sh470.9m.

Best performing entity

On the other hand, the Ministry of Tourism was voted the best procuring and disposing entity due to its ability to stick within the procurement plan, good record keeping and following procurement procedures.

The head procurement and disposal unit at the tourism ministry, Moses Karuhanga said the vote is an indication that the ministry is following proper procurement procedures.

The other high performances include Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development, Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs and Arua Regional Referral Hospital.

The report, however, revealed that there was a failure by entities to appoint contract managers to ensure effective implementation of contracts.