By Mama A. Touray
The director of compliance and practices at GPPA has disclosed to the Local Government Commission of Inquiry that Banjul City Council’s special procurement unit does not have a proper file for its proceedings.
In his third appearance before the Local Government Commission of Inquiry on Wednesday Mr. Tambura said: “The Special Procurement Unit also the procurement unit of the Banjul City Council (BCC) does not have proper procurement file of their procurement proceedings in line with section 35 (2) of GPPA Act and the SPU does not complete the Gambia Public Procurement Authority Forms”.
He said the procurement unit does not prepare a procurement plan for the period under review and procurements, he stated, were conducted by different people from various departments, which he said was wrong.
He explained that the absence of a procurement plan may increase the risk of unplanned expenditure and value for money may not be achieved.
According to him, procurement processes were not properly followed, especially in the use of single source and Request for Quotation methods.
He said most of the GPPA Forms were completed after the items are already supplied, which he said was a wrong practice.
He said the BCC procurement unit does not also prepare and send monthly reports on single source and request for quotation procurements to the GPPA as required by law and that there is no evidence that the SPU carried out periodic market surveys to inform the placing of orders by the contracts committee.
Director Tambura testified that in terms of an organizational structure, there is no evidence that the Banjul City Council has established a Special Procurement Unit as required by section 50 of GPPA.
He further testified that Banjul City Council has appointed an acting procurement officer to conduct procurement transactions for the Council in 2019, from the review of the files presented he added that they observed that individuals from all departments of the Council conducted the procurements and that practice was wrong.
“It is a violation of the regulations. Once there is a compromise in the process. Of course, transparency may be compromised and there is a potential conflict of interest – why those mandated did not conduct the procurement? Potentially, there may be people having a stake in the procurement. These things are red flags in procurement. The procurement officer is mandated to administer the GPPA Form to promote transparency. The forms were not completed and they were not administered,” Tambura said.
Meanwhile, he testified to the Commission that Banjul City Council was dealing with some suppliers that were not registered with the GPPA and that they awarded them contracts.
“That was a violation of the Act. The Act requires that the supplier must register before you deal with them. Giving them contracts without knowing the status of the company or supplier or whether they pay tax, is not right.” He told the commission.
He went on that suppliers have to register at the companies’ registry at the Ministry of Justice and pay their taxes. And that they have to register with GPPA as GPPA has a tracking system and record of the area of specialization of the suppliers.
He also revealed to the Commission that the procurement Officer for the period under review does not qualify for public procurement as required under Section 51 of the Act.
“The GPPA recommended that the Council should formally establish the Special Procurement Unit and place it appropriately in the organizational structure directly under the Chief Executive Officer and be staffed accordingly with trained officials on public procurements. This will ensure that procurement procedures are done in accordance with the Act and the Regulations” he explained.
They further recommended for the procurement unit to prepare the procurement plan as per the GPPA act with planned dates of key procurement activities and perform their functions in line with the regulations.
And, therefore they urged Banjul City Council to fulfill its obligation under the law by ensuring that monthly reports on a single source and requests that quotation file and send to the GPPA regularly.
More so, they called on GPPA to fill out the relevant GPPA Forms to ensure transparency and Accountability in the procurement processes.