By Hassan Osman Kargbo
As a way of making procurement activities more accessible for the people of Sierra Leone, the National Public Procurement Authority, (NPPA), has on Wednesday 25 September 2024, organized a one-day stakeholders’ engagement on the Development of Policy Framework, implementation Strategy and Business process Reengineering Document on the roll out of the E-GP held at the Western District Women’s fellowship Multi-Purpose Hall, King Harman Road, Freetown.
According to the Chief Executive Officer of NPPA, Fodie J. Kanneh, the programme is fully designed to publicize the major re-forms that had occurred in the landscape of procurement especially the full automation in the manual procurement system in Sierra Leone.
He noted that for the past 20 years a lot of leaders had emerged before him in the landscape of procurement and when he was appointed he sat down and reflect on what would he do that will be different from others, He said he told his team that they need to consolidate all re-forms that had be done to enhance effective service delivery for every citizens because he knew that what others had done is also important in the landscape of procurement in the country.
“The past 20 years a lot of leaders had emerged before me in the landscape of procurement and when I was appointed I sat down and reflect on what I can do that will be different from others, I told my team that we need to consolidate all re-forms that had be done to enhance effective service delivery for every citizens because I know that what others had done is also important in the landscape of procurement in the country,” he said.
He added that now is his on turn to lead the Procurement Sector and they have the responsibility to sustain the re-form in the country and informed the gathering that during his one year in office, they have undertaken significant reform because they’re reform minded and they have positioned the NPPA has one of the robust public sectors in the country, he said they’re ready to centralized the procurement landscape, noting that the procurement landscape have been decentralized for over 20 years and if individuals wants to sustain risks, the regulatory authority most be robust and be capable in making sure that compliant are enforced and also must be ready to be the capacity of players in the Procurement landscape and also must be able to reformed, do new Research about emerging issues in the sector.
He admitted that one major re-forms that they had been able to accomplish through the ministry of finance is the registration of suppliers. He said over the years, the laws gives mandate to NPPA to demand suppliers who engage in misconduct in the Procurement field, but said they have little or no data on this contractors and in the 2020 Regulations the registration of suppliers were enshrined in that particular law so that they could have a national Data Base that would represent everyone that is doing business with government.
“The NPPA is moving ahead to have a National Data Base. Gone are those days suppliers would run away with advance payment, and also gone are those days when suppliers would abandon their project and they go unpunished. We would make sure that every supplier that engages in any forms of misconduct would be seriously dealt with,” he said.
He further stated that the Electronic Government procurement systems has also have a lot of significance, he said during this system series of activities had taken place and one such activities is the e-readiness training for stakeholders. He said sometimes this year, they trained significant numbers of people in preparation for the rollout of the E-GP. And said that training was done by international partners from the USA and a lot of stakeholders were in attendance. As they continue to prepare for the rollout of the EGP. He said the NPPA has developed the following documents: the Policy Framework, the Business Process Re-Engineer and the Implementation Strategy and they are there to present the implementation Strategy so that they would understand the trajectory and the direction the E-GP process is taken and they are also moving forward with other forms of re-form such as addressing the abnormalities of the redenomination of the Leones, according to him when the Leones was redenominated it changes all forms of transition processes in the Leones and the effects was felt by the procurement landscape and in his wisdom with the NPPA leadership they have viewed the entire threshold from shopping to International competitive to reflect the redenomination of the Leone and they have also reviewed the shopping threshold to also reflect all the inflationary that had occurred over the past years.
He also called on Procurement officers not to abuse the viewed threshold. He encouraged all Procurement Officers to follow due process of the various thresholds in the sector.
Making his statement, the Project Coordinator Accountable Governance for Service Delivery, Adam Tommy, noted that it’s a $40 million United States Dollars project that would be implemented within the 5-6 years period and its Committee became effective in January 2022 and they project had a number of MDA’s involved in the project.
He said the project has about 11 MDA’S including all 22 councils and one of the key projects is the E-GP project in the country. The design of the E-PG commenced way back from a project called Public Financial Management project that commenced in 2014 but towards the end of the project getting an EG-P systems was an issue and one of the serious issues was the posting they might send like a month in deliberation about the posting.
He said they can’t overemphasize the importance of the E-GP systems in the Procurement sector so that institutions need to take it very seriously. He said the have had an international consultant to study the E-GP systems based on the existing environment, because, according to him implementing I.T system it’s not easy as people may expect in the country.
“Going I.T is not business as usual so it could take time Institution should be prepared in handling chain management to main the E-GP systems, he said.
In his part, the Board Chairman Project Coordinator of National Public Procurement Authority, Alfred H. Kandeh, noted that in the process of procurement reformed the Government of Sierra Leone is embarking on digitalizing the current procurement system for efficient and accountability. He said they are moving from their current manual systems to electronic systems to reduce the large amount of paper work in various institutions in the country. He said the process of digitalization is not keen to government alone. He said that financial system and the banking sector had all gone digital and it’s not surprising because the world had become digital and there is a rapid improvement in technology.
He noted that it’s almost 22 years ago when the government embarked on Procurement reform and at that Time procurement was unwanted at the Time, and there were many difficulties and challenge to the extent that government considered a comprehensive reform process and it was implemented. The government procurement agencies or reformed established with the procurement rules and regulations in 2003 to temporarily governed the Procurement activities in the country. In 2004 the rules and regulations were upgraded in line with the United Nations Commissions on International trade model laws and enacted into law by Parliament signed on the 7 December 2004 by President Alhaji Dr Ahmed Tejan Kabbah of blessed memory.
On the part of the Civil Society, William Sio Lamin, noted that the world is going digital and NPPA is one of the key institution in the country and they need to be transformed to the electronic ways of doing things to follow the international best practices and for them in the Civic Society they have been working with various procurement Institution for a while now and they are very proud to see the NPPA moving to that international space.
He said the NPPA is one of the strongest institutions in the country and their activities are vital for any developments Nation. Adding that if the Procurement institution not strong than that particular country would be in trouble, so how could that institution moving forward will be a great concern to everyone in the country. He said as Civil Society they are proud to be part of the Procurement re-forms in the country and they would try to set with the executive of NPPA to put supporting documents together so that they could start engaging ministries departments and agencies for compliance in their various institution. He said having the national public procurement moving to this direction, it’s a positive signs that they’re going to make a lot of gains in the country. He said they are prepared to work with the NPPA in ensuring that the able to achieve it goals together.
He admitted that the 2004 Public Procurement Acts was amended in 2016 and since then government had been effected particularly in the regulations by the NPPA. The public procurement system was established by the public procurement acts of 2004 was managed.
“the 2004 Public Procurement Acts was amended in 2016 and since then government had been effected particularly in the regulations by the NPPA. The public procurement system was established by the public procurement acts of 2004 was managed,” he said
