Govt agencies should adopt collaborative procurement to save public resources

The phrase, “working in silos”, has become part of today’s common parlance in many an office or boardroom, especially in government ministries, departments and agencies. The word silo in its ordinary meaning refers to storage containers, mainly for grains. But working in silos, as coined by authorities in public administration and management, has taken on a new meaning. It refers to people, teams or organisations that are working towards the same objective, but not sharing information on what they are doing even when they are supposedly aiming at one goal; for instance delivering on one mandate by government agencies.

Working in silos, especially in public procurement, is irrational, because it leads to wastage in terms of time and cost, not to mention missing out on the other advantages accruing from synergizing.

  By invoking the law, and breaking down the silos and adopting the concept of Collaborative Procurement, there is reduction in the procurement processes, which leads to lower administrative costs and thereby allowing government agencies to spend more time focusing on the specialized purchases that are unique to them.

The PPDA Act 2003, in Section 58, provides that a procuring and disposing entity shall plan its procurement and disposal in a rational manner and shall aggregate its requirements where possible, both within the procuring and disposal entity and between procuring and disposal entities, to obtain value for money and to reduce procurement costs. This provision has been strengthened further following the amendment of the PPDA Act last year. The amendment has now empowered the Secretary to the Treasury to give instructions to government agencies to undertake aggregated procurement, otherwise known as Collaborative Procurement. 

The PPDA in conjunction with the Uganda Road Fund (URF) has demonstrably shown that collaborative procurement is practicable, cost effective and can even deliver on projects where a single entity working in silos would not even dream of.

In addition to saving the taxpayers’ hundreds of millions of shillings that the two agencies have hitherto been spending to hire office space, a lot more has been saved in terms of design, construction and consultancy. In total, Shillings 54bn was spent on construction works and Shillings 4bn on the design and construction supervision consultancy.  Had each of these entities separately  undertaken the construction of an office block, the cost would have doubled because each entity would have hired different firms or even similar firms but paid twice by the government of Uganda, each for design, works, and supervision.  This is not to talk of the divided tendering and procurement processes which would also cost money and time.     

Located in the upscale city neighborhood of Nakasero, the PPDA-URF, two-Tower complex, is a 12-level building with a total of 15,179 square metres that include 3 basement levels for over 15o parking spaces. It has 7 floors of office space, training rooms and a 305-seater conference hall. The building is composed of two separate wings connected by a central circulation core. It has shared facilities that include parking, cafeteria, a gym, a Day Care Centre, general reception and lobby. Government agencies may want to take a leaf from this undertaking.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   The idea of the PPDA constructing the office block dates back to 2007 when the Authority bought land located at Plot 39 Nakasero Road. Later in 2013, by invoking the provisions of the PPDA Act in respect of aggregating Procurement, the PPDA Board and the URF Board, with the approval of the Ministry of Finance Planning and Economic Development, entered into a memorandum of understanding to develop a joint home. The iconic PPDA-URF towers were completed in October 2021 six month behind schedule because of the COVID-19 related delays. The building shall be managed as a condominium with condominium titles, a corporation and a Building Management Agreement.

Mr Benson Turamye is the Executive Director, PPDA