Ex-law society President takes over PPDA Appeals tribunal

The former president Uganda Law Society, Francis Gimara, is the new board chairperson of the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Appeals Tribunal. 

Gimara, an accomplished lawyer and senior counsel takes over from the inaugural board that has been at the helm of the body for six years. The term of office of the board of the tribunal is three years, renewable for one term. 

In his acceptance speech on Thursday, Gimara commended the outgoing board, led by Olive Zaale Otete, a legislative drafting and research consultant, and lawyer, for setting what he described as a strong foundation for his team to build on. 

"The outgoing board has given us a very solid foundation to stand on. We will utilize this strong foundation to continuously lead this tribunal with excellence so that it's a model in Africa," he said during a hand over ceremony held at the ministry of finance, planning and economic development offices.

He pledged to respect the oath of office he took on July 27 by respecting the rules and laws in place during adjudication of matters. 

"You have selected Ugandans who have integrity and we stand very confident in front of you to assure that we will do this job," he said noting that they will live by the values of integrity, professionalism, transparency and accountability, set in place by the Otete team. 

The brief function was officiated by the minister of state for finance in charge of general duties, Ajedra Gabriel Aridru, who represented Matia Kasaija. 

 "The tribunal has instituted corporate governance at the secretariat hence deployed efficiently and effectively managed its assets, financial and human resources," he said. 

He implored the new team to uphold the values of integrity, accountability, transparency, equity and fairness, efficiency, team work and timeliness. 

The other members of the new board are Nelson Nerima, Geoffrey Nuwagira Kakira, Paul Kalumba and Thomas Isanga Brookes, whose tenure is still continuing. 

The Tribunal was established by an amendment in the PPDA Act in 2011 and commenced work in 2014. It is a quasi-judicial body with powers of the High Court. 

It was established to give the administrative review process of procurement matters an elaborate process where grievances arising out of the procurement disputes are handled expeditiously within 10 working days.  

This was also to ensure that delays occasioned by long court proceedings are dealt away with. The tribunal handles applications of bidders aggrieved by the decisions of PPDA and also references of PPDA against accounting officers who float laws and guidelines during the procurement process. 

The Tribunal is the last appellate level or tier in the administrative review process. The first level is the entity (accounting officer) followed by the PPDA. 

Otete, in her hand over speech asked the incoming board to uphold impartiality, integrity and zero tolerance top corruption, which principles have been the pillars of their leadership. 

"The parties that come before the tribunal are not small business men. Their contracts are in billions, millions of euros and dollars, but we chose to serve without fear. We didn't care which entity was appearing, which procurement was in issue or which accounting officer was involved. We were guided by the facts in issue, facts in dispute and the law applicable." 

"Throughout the six years, we modeled impartiality and integrity and that is the culture that we would wish the incoming team would further entrench," she stated. 

She urged the new team to also build a culture bordered on respect of all staff irrespective of rank. 

She revealed that during her tenure they faced no challenges and were able to resolve 125 applications and references filed before them. The old guard also leaves the tribunal with no backlog. 

"Being pioneer members, our key tasks were to put in place foundational structures for the proper function of this institution. So we put in place a human resource policy, procedure regulations to guide proceedings before the tribunal and a corporate plan," she said.