A release from the Financial Secretary, Ministry of Finance, dated the 7th May, 2018, has requested all Ministries, Departments and Agencies to submit to the Ministry of Finance not later than 14th May, 2018 a comprehensive list of all ongoing contracts in the country for the supply of goods and services.
According to the release, Ministries, Departments and Agencies should supply information relating to contract description, date of award, expected completion date/cost of contract, cumulative amount paid/processed up to 30th April, 2018 and balance outstanding to date.
The release concludes by urging all MDAs to treat this request very urgent as this information is required to help the Ministry form the basis for determining future level of MDAs allocation.
The move has been described by many as part of the President’s financial discipline drive as the last government has been very reckless in the area of awarding contracts for goods and services.
It was largely observed that these areas were reserved for party cronies and relatives of politicians who continuously breached procurement regulations in the face of the lame duck National Public Procurement Authority (NPPA) while also underperforming in terms of supplying the much required goods and services.
All The Auditor General’s Report in the last ten years had religiously brought out these irregularities and it is expected the move by the new administration would weed out all underperforming contractors and bring to book those who had squandered state coffers in the name of ‘party pekin’.