By Mama A. Touray
The Director of Compliance of the Gambia Public Procurement Authority (GPPA) on Wednesday revealed that Banjul City Council has two hundred and sixty-six transactions of single sourcing.
Samba JB Tambura made these revelations before the ongoing Local Government Commission of Inquiry held at Djembe Hotel in Senegambia.
“In 2019, there were 266 transactions of single sourcing (83.7%) amounting to D3,256,459, 51 transactions of request for quotation (16%) amounting to D2,482,526 and 1 transaction of restricted tendering (0.3%) amounting to D3,450,000. In 2020, there was 1 transaction of restricted tendering amounting to D10,851,600 representing 0.3%, 347 transactions of single sourcing amounting to D9,455,336 representing 94.3%, and 20 transactions for Request for Quotation amounting to D845,954 representing 5.4%” he gave a breakdown of it to the Commission.
The total spending in 2019 on the contracts for the 318 transactions, he stated, was D9,188,985 and the total spending in 2020 for the 368 transactions was D21,152,890. Tambura said the Council conducted many procurements above the threshold provided in the regulations without seeking prior approval from the Authority.
Mr. Tambura testified that procurements in 2019 and 2020 under various procurement methods indicated that most of the procurements were carried out through a non-competitive method of single sourcing and the contracts committee approved none of the transactions. He said this was a contravention of section 49 (C) of the Gambia Public Procurement Authority Act.
“The 2019 procurement performance score for the Banjul City Council was 40%, which means they performed badly. In the following year, which was 2020, they scored 30%, which according to was not a good score for an area council. Under the GPPA scoresheet, 0 to 49 percent represents non-compliant. The city council was found to be a non-compliant institution in 2019 and 2020” Tambura said.
According to Director Tambura the role of the area councils in procurement processes is to ensure that they complied with the Gambia Public Procurement Authority Act, Regulations, and Instructions issued by GPPA.
He added that Section 47 (3) of the GPPA, provides that a ‘procuring organization is responsible, and accounting officers and other officials concerned are accountable for public procurement in accordance with this Act and any Regulations issued by the Authority, and other applicable laws, regulations, and financial instructions applicable in The Gambia.’
He went further telling the Commission that the procurement review covered procurement activities carried out by the Banjul City Council (BCC) under the Act and regulations during the period 1st January 2019 to 31st December 2019. Procurement proceedings during this period entailed the procurement of Goods, Works, and Services.
The following are some of the key documents that were reviewed – the procurement plans, purchase requisitions, requests for quotations, invitations to tender, tender documents, evaluation reports, disposal records, contract agreements, and mandatory reports to the Authority.
