BY PORTIA NKANI
The Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Board Executive Director – Bridget Popi John has expressed displeasure on non-performing contractors who continue to enjoy the government tenders.
In the Board’s latest annual report released this week, Executive Director of the Board, John expressed that, “none performing contractors continue to bid for and win government contracts, and often continue with their unacceptable performance and misconduct.”
John says this pose as one of the major challenges for the Board to execute its mandate. She went on to add that, another major challenge is the non-submission of end of activity reports by procuring entities, which constrains the monitoring of performance of contractors and tracking delivery of awarded contracts; as well as the effectiveness of the suspension and delisting committee to discipline defaulting contractors..
PPADB says there is need to improve the performance of District Administration Tender Committees (DATCs) in relation to compliance to the PPADB Act; particularly where there are no Secretaries resulting in poor record keeping. “Increasing devolution to tender committees necessitate and enhance capacity hence it is important for procuring entities to continue to resource the procurement function appropriately with skilled personnel.”
The conceptualisation, planning and contract management also need to receive more attention at procurement entity level to address concerns of poor project implementation resulting in time and cost overruns which comprise quality. She assured that the Board will continue to identify gaps in the PPADB Act and regulations and submit those to government to strengthen the legal framework to support sustainable public procurement that offers best value.
The monitoring and enforcement of empowerment schemes such as the economic diversification drive and citizen economic empowerment, she also indicated that they need to improve particularly at contract implementation stage to allow for the assessment of the impact of the schemes.
The Executive Director said her Board is suffering from limited funding, therefore it continues to operate with limited annual budget despite its increasing requirements. She said, “there is need to revisit PPADB’s annual budget and align it with its mandate, strategy and key activities. The Board shall continue to review its cost recovery initiatives to raise more money and lessen dependence on the government’s subvention.
Meanwhile, the total value of procurement for PPADB and its Committees for the 2017/18 financial year amounted to P11.322billion excluding micro procurement by Ministries, lower than 2016/17 financial year figure if P13.075 billion.
The value of tenders awarded through micro procurement for the 2017/18 financial year amounted to P402.6million compared to P335million in the 2016/17 financial year.
During the 2017/18 financial year, the Board adjudicated on 614 submissions. The figure represents six percent increase when compared to the previous financial year when 579 submissions were considered by the Board. In terms of value, the board awarded tenders amounting to P1.907billion representing 68 percent decrease. The high value in 2016/17 was due to the roads projects awarded under the ministry of transport and communications.
MTC adjudicated on a total number of 5 693 submissions during the year under review amounting to P5, 409billion compared to the previous financial year of 4 074 submissions amounting to P5.43billion.
The DATCs adjudicated on a total number of 1 645 submissions amounting to P400.5million as opposed to 1 667 submissions totalling P398million. Records were not available for 4 of the 28 DATCs mainly owing to the absence of Secretaries.
During the period under review, Special Procurement and Assets Disposal Committee (SPADC) adjudicated a total of 98 requests amounting to P3.604billion compared to a total of 169 of P1.187billion.
