The Chief Executive Officer of the National Public Procurement Authority, Ibrahim Brima Swarray, said in Freetown that the National Public Procurement Authority under his watch has been able to save government one hundred and ten million United States dollars ($110) from faulty procurement processes through reviews.
He cited the savings of the ACC in the last eighteen months, which, according to him, is less than two million dollars.
This, according to him, justifies the fact that it is better to prevent corruption than allow it to happen.
The Chief Executive made this disclosure on Friday 6th March,2020 while launching the fourth quarter of the Public Procurement Bulletin at the Ministry of Finance Conference Hall in Freetown, which is consistent with section 14 (2)(i) of the Public Procurement Act of 2016.
The NPPA Chief encouraged his colleagues to treat the profession as a discipline and a profession. He called on them, both as Practicing Procurement Officers and as a regulatory body, to contribute into Sierra Leone’s transformation process.
Mr. Swarray cited a number of MDAs and other institutions quoted in the fourth quarter bulletin, which, according to him, have undertaken faulty procurement processes that would have led government to lose four hundred and one billion, three hundred and eighty million, one hundred and fifteen thousand leones (Le401,380,115,000), an equivalence of forty million, one hundred and thirty eight thousand and eighty two United States dollars (USD 40,138,082) through various activities with the Ministries of Energy and Defence, the Institute of Public Administration and Management and the Bo City Council.
Sierra Leone, according to him, is a cash economy, and if state resources go into the wrong hands the ‘gron will be dry’.
He accused MDAs of engaging in the illegal circulation of funds, which, according to him, is responsible for the ‘gron dry’.
The Chairman of the NPPA Board, in his own contribution, started by calling on the meeting to observe a minute of silence for the former Vice President of Sierra Leone, Solomon Ekuma Berewa, who passed off in Freetown over the weekend.
He noted that he was the personality who influenced the closure of the Tender Board at the Ministry of Finance in 2003, leading to the enactment of the National Public Procurement Act of 2006.
The launching of the Public Procurement bulletin, he said, is a key provision in the NPPA Act of 2016, and that the Authority is keen on ensuring that the bulletin, which captures vital information on the public procurement process, is captured for the information of the general public.
Professor Kandeh encouraged individuals in academia, the media and other sectors to contribute to the quarterly procurement bulletin. He specifically called on the media to develop the culture of having columns in their newspapers that are specifically dedicated to the procurement landscape in the country.
The Public Procurement Bulletin contains critical information on the country. Public Procurement process, for the period under review, captures information such as procurement savings, use of alternative procurement processes, review of bidding documents from MDAs and other public entities and evaluation of reports from MDAs, etc.
Since coming to power, in the last eighteen months, the Authority has revived the launching of price norms, procurement bulletins, conducted end to end reviews, reviewed tender documents, robustly took on the decentralization of the Authority, amongst other key reforms.
The Chief Executive is also keen on driving through the e-Procurement process, which is at an advanced stage, with the establishment of an e-Procurement Directorate with support from the World Bank and the appointment of a Director.