Tumbul K. Danso, Director General of the Gambia Public Procurement
Authority, GPPA, has said The Gambia cannot afford to waste limited resources
competed for by myriad development-related needs, thus the plausibility of
government reforms.
The GPPA director general was speaking while presenting the GPPA 2013 annual activity report before the joint session of the Public Accounts Committee and Public Enterprises Committee, PAC/PEC, of the National Assembly yesterday.
According to Danso, as spenders of taxpayers’ money, it is therefore imperative that government institutes a plausible mechanism for the dispensation of public funds in a cost-effective manner.
He informed Assembly members that the new public procurement dispensation is a decentralized system in which procuring organizations, (that is, government entities, project implementation units, statutory bodies, local government authorities and public enterprises) take full ownership of their respective procurement transactions while the GPPA serves as the regulatory body.
The authority is, therefore, responsible for the regulation and monitoring of public procurement in The Gambia, he said, adding that the main attributes of good governance in this instance constitute in the dispensation of public funds.
According to The Gambia Public Procurement Act 2001, the GPPA shall report annually to the Minister a quantitative and qualitative assessment of procurement activities in The Gambia, and to submit such assessment outcomes to the Minister within three months of the end of each financial year, on the activities of the authority during the preceding year.
In addition, he went on, the authority is responsible for assisting in developing and enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of public procurement operations by developing the means to buy common items on favourable government wide terms, and develop standardized and unified procurement regulations.
It is also its responsibility to be publishing in The Gambia, institutions and bidding documents which shall be binding on all procuring organizations, promoting the development of a professional procurement workforce, and providing credible information to government with a view to keeping it abreast with developments affecting the public procurement reforms.
The GPPA is also concerned with developing government-wide policies and programmes aimed at establishing procurement-related positions, career paths and performance incentives, as well as with participating in discussions with donor and international organizations the public procurement issues affecting The Gambia, he said.
