Government to reduce procurement period to 90 days

Kampala. The government has finalised the National Public Sector Procurement Policy, which will among other things, limit procurement time to a maximum of 90 days.
According to the minister of Finance, Mr Matia Kasaija, the amendment of the PPDA Act 2003 and the PPDA Regulations 2014, is aimed at creating efficiency in the procurement process across government departments.
“Our target is to reduce the current lengthy complaints handling mechanism by limiting complaints handling to PPDA Tribunal and Courts of Law and have E-procurement in all government departments,” said Mr Kasaija.

The minister, in his speech delivered by Planning minister David Bahati at the Office of the President, said accounting officers would be required to adopt best-practice procurement disciplines, and enable government save up to Shs336 billion in procurement processes annually.
The meeting was aimed at explaining to accounting officers ways of increasing value for money for government expenditure but with emphasis on infrastructure investment.

“With increased government investment in infrastructure, it is estimated that improving efficiency of procurement that saves only 2 per cent of resources can result into approximately Shs336b in efficiency savings,” said Mr Kasaija.
Mr Kasaija also said various assessments from the Auditor General’s reports and budget monitoring reports reveal that procurement in government departments continues to suffer from various forms of inefficiencies.
He urged all government departments to demonstrate good value for money within their operations and to move away from: “how much do I spend?’’ towards measurable results of “what can I achieve with this money?” attitude.

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