NPPA Chief Executive Officer, Ibrahim Swarray
By Ralph Sesay
The National Public Procurement Authority has been positioned in the last one hundred days to deliver on the mandate of President Bio to reduce the inherent wastages endemic in public sector procurement which accounts for 70% of Government budgetary expenditure.
In the last one hundred days the new Chief Executive Officer, of the NPPA Ibrahim Swarray and his dedicated lieutenants have been able to identify areas for continuous improvement in making the Authority efficiently and effectively carry out its mandate of regulating and monitoring public procurement in Sierra Leone while also advising Government on issues relating to public procurement.
Mr. Ibrahim Swarray and team have been able to quickly set up price norms to be used as a reference guide with respect to the purchase of common user items by MDA’s. This is against the backdrop that there is a huge variance in prices between the respective MDA’s. The move is to help MDA’s to buy within the market range and not at overpriced rates.
There has also been a robust public awareness campaign of public sector procurement issues in the print and electronic media and increased accountability in the process through the publication of names of MDA’s that failed to report on their procurement activities.
Most importantly the new team under the leadership of the Chief Executive has vehemently refused to approve all waiver requests submitted to the Authority.He has executed a zero tolerance towards waivers which bypass standard procurement processes which according to him places undue risks and financial burden on Government.
Mr. Swarray mentioned that all the waivers that he did not approve have not fulfilled the conditions prescribed in the NPPA Act.
Other important milestones accomplished during the one hundred days also include enforcing policies on requirements for publication of bid adverts and contract awards in order to promote transparency in the process, reviewing procurement documentation completed by MDA’s, instituting procurement documentation and requirements for procurement plans to be submitted as part of the budget preparation process prior to gaining budget approval amongst others.
The NPPA chief has also disclosed that in the next six months the Authority will be engaging in a series of activities in order to restore confidence in Public Procurement.
Other detailed activities in the next coming months will also include an assessment of procurement activities completed in 2017 across MDA’s with a view to ascertaining weaknesses and developing suitable solutions, creating a forum for public sector procurement practitioners to discuss emerging issues across the procurement system and solutions to meet procurement implementation challenges in the country.