By Mama A. Touray
As the Director of Procurement Policy and Operations at Gambia Public Procurement Authority (GPPA) continued in his testimony during his fifth-day appearance before the Local Government Commissioner of Inquiry (LGCI), he explained further how the Mansakonko Area Council further flouted the procurement laws.
On Monday, in his testimony before the Commission sitting at the Djembe Hotel, Senegambia, Mr. Ebrima Sanyang said the Gambia Public Procurement Authority Act and the regulations provide that the procurement unit of an area council should be under the office of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and the Chief Executive Officer shall also serve as the head of the contracts committee of the council.
“The procurement unit of the Mansakonko Area Council is under the finance department, which the GPPA flagged as a violation of the law. Also, the contracts committee of the Mansakonko Area Council was headed by the Vice Chairperson of the area council instead of the CEO as required by the law,” he pointed out.
Moving forward, he said the implications for these practices by Mansakonko Area Council are that the procurements may be individualized for financial gains, also accountability and transparency in the procurement processes cannot be assured. And it may also result in the use of the wrong procurement method.
Mr. Sanyang however informed the Commission that “In 2022, the Mansakonko Area Council does not have tender forms in their procurements. Tender forms are very important in procurement transactions without which the process is susceptible to discretional awarding of contracts – meaning the awards may not be given based on merit.”
The review team according to him did receive the organogram of the council, adding the team was interested in seeing the place where the procurement unit falls and the reporting lines within the Mansakonko Area Council which he described as incorrect.
“The argument that the Mansakonko Area Council made was that they hired a consultant who advised them to leave the procurement unit under the finance department,” he told the commission.
Commissioner Alagie Sillah, interjected to say that the law should not be disregarded since it provides for the procurement unit to be under the office of the CEO and not the finance department. The witness agreed with Commissioner Sillahsaying it is a wrong practice to place the procurement unit under the finance department and that it is against the GPPA Act.
The procurement Policy and Operations director also told the Commission that if you place the procurement unit under the finance department, it may lead to a conflict of interest and undermine the independence of the procurement unit in its operation.
However, Ebrima Sanyang established that the MansakonkoArea Council also failed to maintain proper procurement proceedings, saying “The procurement unit of the MansakonkoArea Council failed to maintain proper filing of the procurement proceedings in fulfillment of the requirement of the GPPA Act. The head of the procurement unit does not act as the secretary to the contracts committee”.
Deputy Lead Council Patrick Gomez asked as to whom the secretary of the Contracts Committee for the Mansakonko Area Council was, the witness, Ebrima Sanyang said he does not know. The witness said Baba Trawally was the head of the procurement unit and Ebrima Saidyleigh was the procurement assistant.
He informed further that there was no evidence of the formal appointment of the Contracts Committee members, and no disposal committee at the Mansakonko Area Council while describing all these lapses as violations of the Gambia Public Procurement Act.
He, however, testified that the Mansakonko Area Council in 2022 did not have an evaluation committee to review what has been sent by suppliers to ensure that award decision is based on merit. Adding that without an evaluation committee, it is difficult to ascertain how the evaluation was done to award-successful bidders. “There are chances that contracts may be awarded to the wrong bidders,” he reiterated.
“In fact, the wrong bidder is always selected. You cannot convince me in law where the wrong bidder is not selected,” Counsel Patrick Gomez said firmly.
Responding to deputy lead counsel, Sanyang said “Yes, an award decision has to be based on merit”.
The witness said during the interview with staff of the Mansakonko Area Council, they observed that there was a high level of interference.
Meanwhile, he testified that the Chief Executive Officer of the Mansakonko Area Council did not appoint members of the inspections and acceptance committee, which was a violation of the law. And that there was no proper management and documentation or recording of the procurement process at the Mansakonko Area Council.
“Proper recording is a challenge,” the witness noted.
Coming to the non-compliance issues for the procurement unit, he said the procurement unit did not ensure the full administration of all the relevant GPPA forms, including the GPPA Form 101.
“The Mansakonko Area Council was collecting quotations from suppliers verbally,” he told the Commission.
He said the practice of collecting quotations from suppliers encourages biases in terms of awarding contracts. “Form 101 is to avoid direct contact with the suppliers to ensure that the ground is level for competition for all potential suppliers. Form 101 depicts the specifications and evaluation criteria,” he said.
He concluded that the forms must be used and filled. He explained that the idea is to ensure transparency in the process.