The Kokopo and Rabaul Districts in East New Britain have established their District Procurement Committees with the swearing in of members in Kokopo recently.
This now brings the total District Procurement Committees to 61 and 14 Provincial Procurement Committees successfully established to undertake procurement of goods, works and services in the districts and provinces on behalf of the National Procurement Commission (NPC).
NPC CEO, Simon Bole who witnessed the swearing in urged the committee members to carry out their duties in compliance with the NPC Act to expedite projects and deliver basic goods and services to the people.
“With the successful swearing in of Kokopo and Rabaul District Procurement Committees, we have around 61 district procurement committees successfully set up out of the 89 districts,” Mr Bole said.
He said the remaining 28 districts and eight provinces have until 30th of June to establish their procurement committees.
“The procurement reform is an achievement for provinces and districts because procurement functions and powers that they don’t have before is now given to them.
“Districts for the first time given powers to procure and approve projects up to the threshold limit of K2.5 million and this is an achievement for districts,” Mr Bole added.
He said districts didn’t have these powers in the past but now under the reform, NPC is delegating its powers and functions down to the districts and provinces up to the threshold limit of K5 million.
Mr Bole said provinces and districts that fail to establish their committees by June 30, cannot undertake procurement for goods, works and services above K500,000.
All their procurement for projects will only be undertaken by NPC as powers are not delegated to them.
Kokopo MP and Vice Minister for National Planning, Emil Tammur thanked CEO Bole and the NPC for ensuring the implementation of government’s procurement reform.
“This is a milestone achievement for us at the Kokopo District because having such powers gives us the leverage to speed up procurement ourselves and expedite projects for service delivery,” Minister Tammur said.
He said it is the vision of the Government to empower districts and provinces through NPC is a tremendous job.