By Ralph Sesay
The Public Procurement Act of 2016 makes provision for the establishment of the National Public Procurement Authority. It was passed into law in 2015 to regulate and harmonize public procurement processes in the public service,decentralize public procurement to procuring entities with a view to promoting open competition and economic development, amongst others.
Sierra Leone, like many other countries in the sub region, needed to catch up with happenings across the globe by ensuring that the procurement of goods, works and services, by Government ministries,departments and agencies, local councils, sub vented agencies, state owned enterprises utilizing public funds,is thoroughly regulated to ensure value for money.
It is the view of governments across the world and donor partners that a huge chunk of government’s budgetary support goes into procurement of goods, works and services,making it independent of any government ministry, more so the Ministry of Finance which disburses government money to MDAs and other entities utilizing public monies. This will make for transparency and accountability. The establishment of the NPPA was to satisfy the thirst for transparency and decentralization in the procurement process against the backdrop that procurement processes were centralized under the Central Tender Board at the Ministry of Finance.
It is still crystal clear that, since the establishment of the NPPA in Sierra Leone almost a decade ago, much is left to be desired in terms of actualizing the purpose for its establishment.
Sierra Leone has recorded the worst leakages in various procurement processes for goods, works and services, both nationally and internationally, costing government a huge loss of revenue which could have been diverted to other social services program for the people.
Different Auditor General’s reports, year in year out, have cited anomalies in the process largely because MDAs and other agencies expending public funds have continued to flout the Public Procurement Act of 2016 with impunity,thereby using waivers instead of allowing for fair competition in the process.
The supply of goods and services of sub-standard nature has remained the order of the day, with some businessmen and some corrupt government officials in MDAs and other public entities enriching themselves at the expense of the state.
With the emergence of the New Direction regime, under the watch of President Bio, there is a huge commitment around stopping leakages. In fact,procurement is deemed as very key in all of this, taking into cognizant the fact that a huge chunk, around 70% of government budgetary support, goes into the procurement of goods, works and services.The fight against graft for sustainable development,which the new government has promised, will not succeed if the Public Procurement Act of 2016 is not implemented to the letter.
There is need, as a nation, to strengthen and enforce the NPPA Act as it has very good intents and purposes with clearly defined leadership structures, bringing on board experts and professionals on procurement at different layers of the procurement process.
The framers of the Act were very much conscious of all ramifications that will emerge around every procurement activity, be it national or international, and the contents of the ACT have provided answers that will crop up towards curtailing all the anomalies. Hence MDAs want to procure goods, works and services with transparency, value for money and open competition, which are the cardinal principles.
This brings me to the proposal presented by the Ministry of Finance in the ongoing budget hearing process in Freetown,where the ministry insinuated that, in order for the Ministry to be able to continue to raise domestic revenue for Government and thoroughly position themselves to effectively deliver in the coming fiscal year 2019, there is a need to review the Public Procurement Act of 2016 and other relevant financial laws in the country.
It is their estimation that the Public Procurement Act of 2016 has got some clauses or sections that impede the easy and smooth mobilization of domestic revenue even though they could not state what these sections are for the sake of clarity and precision.
Therefore the presentation by the Ministry of Finance,and particularly the proposal to review the Public Procurement Act of 2016,is not very clear and seems to be very suspicious, especially at a time when the new government has made giant strides in bringing sanity to the oncemessy and corrupt processes, which had accounted for loss of billions thereby eroding donor confidence.
The justification by the Ministry of Finance for such a review is to empower the Directorate of Procurement in the Ministry of Finance to be able to monitor procurement processes in the country. It is very vague especially so when the mandate of the NPPA is all encompassing and includes monitoring. This will in any way betray the purpose and intent of the framers of the Public Procurement Authority of 2016, which was to create complete decentralization in the entire procurement process.
The Directorate of Procurement, in the Ministry of Finance, has not got any clear and legally constituted job description and mandate. For the fact that it is being supervised by the Financial Secretary has made matters worse.Its very existence, just like the defunct Central tender Board, is completely pararelled to the National Public Procurement Authority, which has a legally constituted Board of Directors with professionals and experts on procurement. It also has a broad based composition representing all interest groups in the country.
The Act has also provided for an Independent Procurement Review Panel and different procurement committees and Units across MDAs and other entities that utilize public funds.
It is also my understanding that the NPPA reports directly to the office of the President, whether this is in theory I cannot tell, but this, in itself, is deliberate as it is an attempt to ensure that the NPPA has complete authority and unfettered access to freely regulate all MDAs and other entities utilizing public monies without undue influence from any quarters whatsoever.
The proposal by the Ministry of Finance,which is not very clear except that they want the Directorate of Procurement under the Ministry to stand out, will by all intents and purposes undermine the gains the current government has made in stopping leakages.
Empowering the Directorate of Procurement, in the Ministry of Finance under the supervision of the Financial Secretary, will mean making the NPPA dysfunctional and allowing the Ministry of Finance to be the referee and the player at the same time, a situation which had obtained when we had the Central Tender Board.
This will by all means undermine the trust of donor communities who are very much keen to ensure the NPPA is strengthened to minimize, if not eliminate leakages in the procurement process. It will also mean that Sierra Leone will move away from the internationally recognized best practice, which is a norm used in most member states.