By Mama A. Touray
The Director of Compliance and Public Practices at Gambia Public Procurement Authority has revealed that the Banjul City Council contract committee failed to meet some of its obligations.
Mr. Tambura made this revelation in his testimony before the Local Government Commission of Inquiry underway at Djembe Hotel, Senegambia yesterday.
“The Contracts Committee (CC) of BCC failed in meeting some of their obligations, in any procurement you must have evaluation criteria because it is the basis for award decisions. The CC failed to input evaluation criteria in their requests. The form requires for evaluation criteria, but the BCC did not utilisethe GPPA form,” he told the Commission.
He stated that there is a form developed by the Gambia Public Procurement Authority to indicate requirements and terms of reference. Noting that it is not right to communicate with suppliers directly.
According to him, “If the form is lacking, how do you communicate? How do you indicate your evaluation criteria? How do you indicate your expectation?”
He informed the Commission that the Contracts Committee failed to plan and this he said would have an impact on the way they deal. Saying that it is expected that the Contacts Committee would meet and plan.
Director Tambura further testified to the Commission that the Contracts Committee has no secretary and they do not take minutes of the meetings. He was quick to add that the procurement officer should have been the secretary to the Contracts Committee, but the council he said was without a procurement officer.
The review, he said, raised concern that there is no evidence that the Contracts Committee approved the use of single sourcing. And the Contracts Committee must approve every process of transactions.
Meanwhile, the Director of Compliance told the commission that Banjul City Council disposed of a Toyota vehicle and that there was no disposal committee, while he disclosed that the witness said disposal is a procurement activity.
He said if there is a need for disposal and it is justified, the Council should set up a disposal committee. He explained that after setting up the disposal committee, it should be sent to Gambia Public Procurement Authority for approval.
“All these were not done,” the witness confirmed.
He said there was no indication of the ownership of the vehicle and there was no information about the disposal method, too.
He continued that transactions were all conducted by the use of single sourcing. The threshold for single-sourcing he said is D20,000 to below, and the minimum amount in the transaction was D26,000.
He said BCC did not seek prior approval and they did not give approval.
“Most of the transactions should have been done by request for quotation with at least three bidders. One of the fundamental principles of procurement was compromised which is competition. There is no assurance that the prices involved are not in the market range,” he said.
Meanwhile, he said this has violated a fundamental principle of competition as these things were supposed to be competed for, so there is a possibility of overpricing, In every single source transaction, the possibility for overpricing exists, he added.
“There was no justification for the use of single sourcing. The justification that is acceptable was not provided. There was no evidence that the single source method that was used by Banjul City Council was not the best in this use. The method used was not backed by law” he told the Commission.
