Hon. Abdul Kargbo of opposition All People’s Congress has told Parliament that the actions of the Ministry of Finance in passing through the Finance Act of 2020, has left the NPPA as a living corpse in terms of executing its constitutional mandate.
The Hon. MP cited the 2019 Finance Act tabled by the Ministry of Finance before the House in 2018 which, he noted, had at the time created for the existence of a Procurement Directorate at the Ministry of Finance.
The Ministry of Finance, according to him, had an ulterior motive at the time to usurp the powers of the NPPA.
Hon. Kargbo indicated that even though the House had objected to the passage of this particular clause in the 2019 Finance Act, the Ministry of Finance, he stated, had gone and took over some of the functions of the NPPA such as training and recruiting of Practicing Procurements Officers contrary to what Parliament had objected to.
The APC MP also described certain sections in the Finance Act of 2020 as ones that will strangulate the NPPA from engaging in end to end reviews of various procurement contracts.
He also indicated that the act of establishing a threshold for the NPPA in terms of supervising the procurement activities of various MDAs was also tantamount to reducing, as well as usurping the powers of the NPPA.
Hon. Abdul Kargbo further noted that the Finance Act of 2020 also had a clause that has ultimately transferred the powers for granting sole sourcing to the Office of the President thereby also undermining the very authority of the NPPA.
This, according to the APC Member of Parliament, leaves a very vibrant institution that has done so much in terms of reforming the once rotten sector impotent.
The APC MP quoted Barrack Obama who, he noted, had once said that: ‘’Africa needs strong institutions not strong men’’ and underscored the point that ratings in the MCC and other international institutions, have continued to expose the weaknesses of the Ministry of Finance in the areas of fiscal discipline and sound economic management.
He called on the House to entreat the Ministry of Finance to concentrate on the plethora of macro-economic issues before its table, rather than grabbing the functions of vibrant institutions such as the NPPA, NRA, NCP and the Commercial Banks which are proving to be very much in tandem with international best practice in terms of managing their institutions.
With The Finance Act 2020… “NPPA Remains A Living Corpse” -Hon Abdul Kargbo
