PPDA suspends 34 more companies for shoddy business
Jul 17, 2014
Public Procurement & Disposal of Public Assets Authority (PPDA) has suspended 34 more companies from participating in public procurement bringing the total of the suspended firms to 91.
By John Odyek
Public Procurement & Disposal of Public Assets Authority (PPDA) has suspended 34 more companies from participating in public procurement bringing the total of the suspended firms to 91.
PPDA is cracking whip to combat widespread corruption in public procurement by blacklisting firms engaged in various malpractices.
It is hoped this will improve service delivery and prevent abuse of scares public resources.
The companies have received suspension periods ranging from one to five years.
After which they are allowed to reapply.
Their offences range from submitting forged documents bid security, income tax clearance certificate, certificate of registration, bank guarantee forms.
The majority performed shoddy work, failed to complete contracts on time, got invoiced for work not done, submitted a forged completion certificate, submitted a forged evidence of works contracts previously undertaken.
Others used higher rates than those originally quoted in the bills of quantities.
One company has been suspended indefinitely for causing large financial loss to government.
Patricia Asiimwe, acting executive director PPDA said the details of firms that were suspended and are suspected to be involved in criminal activities are forwarded to Police for criminal investigations.
Asiimwe said the Police would investigate the crime committed by the individuals in the firms.
“We wrote to Uganda Revenue Authority to determine whether a tax clearance certificate is genuine. They have to confirm with us,” Asiimwe said.
She said they write to all accounting officers to notify them of the suspended companies.
The PPDA Regulations, 2014, requires the authority to notify all government entities of the suspension.
On whether the penalties were not light, she said that the essence of giving people punishment was to enable them reform. “We hope that with the suspension they will be able to improve. Criminal law wants people to reform.
We all commit crime, people commit traffic offenses and they are penalized. Otherwise we would all be in prisons,” Asiimwe said.
She expressed hope that the suspensions were helping. “We do not see firms repeating the offenses after the suspension,” she said.
Adding, “Most of the people involved depend on government business. If you deny them business for two years it is like denying them their livelihood. It is a big deterrent”.
According to PPDA Regulations 2014, when a company is suspended from public procurement, its directors are equally suspended. They cannot be involved in public procurement and disposal on behalf of that company or any other company they represent.
AIGP Grace Akullo, Director CIID said they have received reports from PPDA about the companies and would follow it up.
“We have a number of issues on procurement. We shall handle them,” Akullo said. She did not say what measures she would undertake but promised to provide more information at a later time.
Jim Mugunga, spokesperson for the ministry of finance said PPDA was an autonomous institution but was expected to work with relevant organs of government.
“They are supposed to enforce the PPDA Act to the letter.
It is not good enough to suspend companies but we expect they should inform sister institutions about their actions such as Police, Uganda Revenue Authority to take corrective action,” Mugunga said.
According to the World Bank Uganda, the country loses about $300m (sh510b) per year through corruption and procurement malpractices.
Public procurement in Uganda accounts for over 70% of government’s budget for goods and services.
Government is the biggest employer to the private sector in terms of offering lucrative business opportunities in terms of tenders and contracts.
“Because of this huge importance to the business sector, a number of business firms are using both ethical and unethical methods to gain a share of this business opportunity,” Justice Irene Mulyagonja said in a paper entitled ‘Combating corruption in public procurement’.
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