By Janet A. Sesay
The National Procurement Authority (NPPA) the body responsible for monitoring and regulating Government procurement systems and processes has announced that effective in October, 2024, all Government procurement processes will be conducted electronically.
This was disclosed and confirmed at a stakeholder’s engagement on Wednesday, 25th September, 2024 that included representatives from Ministries, Department and Agencies of Government has held a one day stakeholders engagement on electronic government procurement with representatives from different Ministries, Departments and Agencies held at the Western District Women’s Fellowship Multi-purpose hall at King Harman Road in Freetown. The engagement focused on the Development of Policy Framework, Implementation Strategy and Business Process Reengineering on the rollout of the Electronic Government Procurement (EGP).
The Chief Executive Officer of NPPA, Fodie J. Konneh said the review of government procurement to go electronic was started by his predecessor, which he took up as a matter of continuity. The CEO furthered that the transformation to electronic procurement is a good footing for transparency and accountability and a pathway to reducing corruption.
He assured that the transformation will ensure the registration of suppliers and contractors into the national data base, warning strictly that anyone who flouts the procurement rules is sure to be dealt with according to the law. CEO Konneh affirmed that the new procurement system will address the anomalies of the Leones.
He cautioned Procurement Officers not to abuse the new process as it will affect them if they do, as they are bound to be caught as his Authority would be engaging in random on-the-spot checks to monitor suppliers and contractors.
Fodie J Konneh, NPPA Chief Executive Officer
He noted that all those anomalies that had happened before the coming into being of the this EGP, “are the building blocks of what we have arrived at now,” he stated, and paid tribute to his predecessors, “for playing their own roles in developing the NPPA according to their abilities and timings,” and emphasized that as current administrators of the NPPA, they owe it as a responsibility to serve the current generation and also to sustain those reforms that his predecessors had put in place before them.
He indicated that the procurement landscape had been decentralized for over twenty years, and urged for the Authority to be robust in order to be able to mitigate and sustain risk within the procurement ecosystem and to ensure its efficiency in enforcing compliance.
He maintained that the NPPA must be able to build the capacity of its players in this landscape and it must be able to conduct researches and inform the public about emerging issues in the landscape.
He revealed that one major reform they have been able to accomplish through the approval of the Ministry of Finance is the Registration of Suppliers, pointing out that over the years the law has mandated the NPPA to register suppliers who engage in the conducts of Government procurement, pointing out however that over the years, the NPPA has little or no data on these contractors, which he noted, gave condition for the 2020 NPPA Regulation to enshrine the registration of suppliers, which he said will begin in earnest.
The Deputy Chief Executive Officer Augustine J. Tommy said 60-70% of the country’s revenue resources go to procurement activities, pointing out that the strategy of NPPA is to make procurement better and effective and a sieve in ensuring that Government resources go through the right channel, and ensuring a balance and prudent financial management.