‘Gov’t poised to make D15M savings per annum’

However, this subvention had been grossly inadequate for the authority’s operational costs, which is in the region of D2 million per month compared to the D1.25 million/month subvention being provided by government.

The GPPA director general made this statement on Tuesday before the joint session of the Public Accounts Committee and Public Enterprises Committee (PAC/PEC) of the National Assembly, during the debate on the GPPA activity report for 2014.

He said considering the proliferation of sub-vented government institutions, management was of the opinion that an alternative and more sustainable financing arrangement was necessary.

Consequently, he added, management for the past couple of years continued to make a case for a sustainable financing for GPPA through the levying of a service charge on the procurement budget of all procuring organisations.

With this arrangement, he continued, the authority was hopeful of being self-financing and, therefore, not needing any funding from government.

Mr Danso further informed deputies that during the PAC/PEC session on GPPA in 2012, the said financing proposal was considered and endorsed by members of the PAC/PEC.

More recently, he said, the government finally approved the proposal through a directive from the Office of the President and the Ministry for Finance and Economic Affairs in May 2015.

Since then, the authority managed to collect the sum of D6.4 million by end of December 2015, he added.

Now that the authority is free from government subvention effective January 2016, it is mandatory on all procuring organizations to ensure payment of their 1 per cent service charge to GPPA, he said.

To ensure effective collection of this charge to achieve the sustainability that is being aimed at, all procuring entities would be urged to ensure payment of their 1 per cent service fee on or before end of March each year, he said.