MoH cleared on vehicle sales

The public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Authority (PPDA) has cleared the Ministry of Health of any wrong-doing in the disposal of its vehicles.

The development comes days after Youth and Society (YAS) gave the ministry seven days to explain how it disposed of its vehicles without following the new PPDA Act.

Some of the ministry’s employees, including Principal Secretary Dan Namarika bought vehicles in a public auction in disregard of the Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets (PPDA) Act of 2017.

The Act, specifically under Section 35, states that: “A procuring and disposing entity shall not enter into a procurement or disposal contract with its employee or any close relative of any employee.”

But PPDA acting director general Timothy Kalembo said in a questionnaire response on Friday that the disposal was carried out under the old centralised system and was allowed because the process had already started in 2017 before the new PPDA Act became effective.

The old Act, according to Kalembo, allowed employees to participate in disposal proceedings of their institutions, consequently clearing MoH officials of any wrong-doing.

“Based on the information available, on June 7 2018, this office acknowledged that this was a continuation of the disposal process which had started before the new Act became effective. Therefore, we allowed the PVHES [Plant and Vehicle Hire and Engineering Services] to proceed using the old centralised process of disposing the mechanical assets.

“Our new PPDA Act would not apply in retrospect. In our letter, we advised the disposing entity that they may use the services of the auctioneer who was already in contract with them. We also expressly stated that this was the last time a centralised disposal of mechanical assets was carried out as disposal is now decentralised under the new PPD Act,” he explained.

YAS executive director Charles Kajoloweka said they will wait from an official response to their demand letter from the ministry.

Before the new PPDA Act,

PHOTOGRAPH: NATION

PAGE 4