Provincial governments and District Development Authorities (DDAs) are not eligible to undertake procurement of goods and services on behalf of the Government.
The National Procurement Commission (NPC) chief executive officer, Simon Bole, said this when commending the Western Highlands Provincial Government for swearing in their Provincial Procurement Board last week.
He called on all provincial administrators and chairmen of DDAs that have yet to establish their procurement committees, to immediately write to the NPC to facilitate their establishment.
Bole said 35 procurement committees, which include seven provinces, 19 districts and nine special procurement committees, were already being approved by the NPC board and established.
“Provinces and districts that have yet to establish their procurement committee are not eligible to undertake procurement because Provincial Governments and DDAs do not have legal standing to undertake procurement under the National Procurement Act 2018,” Bole stated.
“We have already passed halfway through 2020 and those districts and provinces that have yet establish their procurement committee must immediately write to the NPC board seeking delegation of powers and approval to establish their procurement committee.”
Bole said Members of Parliament and their DDAs and provincial governments must understand that their ambition to deliver services to people will be impeded if they do not have a procurement committee.
“All procurement activities now come under NPC and the NPC board will have to first delegate some of its procurement functions in compliance with the National Procurement Act to the provinces and districts through the procurement committees.
“These committees are part of the NPC structure and are not part of the provincial governments and DDAs.
“They will then undertake procurement in the provinces and districts so provincial administrators and chairmen of DDAs must make it their priority to communicate with NPC and establish their procurement committees,” Bole emphasised.
He said threshold limits for provinces is K5 million and districts is K2.5 million.
“Anything greater than their threshold limits will have to be sent to the NPC to undertake procurement.”
He further reiterated that contracts in provinces and districts will only be awarded to national companies because their procurement threshold limit is less than K10 million.
“Under section 48 of the NPA, all contracts valued less than K10 million is restricted to national companies only.
“So the threshold limits of provinces (K5mil) and districts (K2.5mil) are below the contract value restricted to national companies (K10mil) so they will only award contracts to national companies.”
Bole said all District Supply and Tenders Board (DSTB) and Provincial Supply and Tenders Board (PSTB) ceased to exist and Transition Provisions Section 81 of the NPA ceased effective 6th of May 2020.
“All and any PSTB, DSTB or procurement committee meetings without the NPC board approval or delegation of board’s powers will be illegal and penalties provisions in NPA section 78 after 6th May 2020 and other provisions will apply.”
He said a list of all provinces and districts that have the NPC committees established were published in a circular on Wednesday 22nd July by the NPC in the newspapers.
“Open Members of Parliament and governors must understand that without the committee, they cannot do procurement in the district and provinces and this will impact on their service delivery. So they must make it their priority to establish the committees.”
(National Procurement Commission chief executive officer, Simon Bole)