The Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Authority (PPDA) says it has put in place measures to ensure that there are no delays in public procurement.
Speaking on Thursday when he appeared before the Parliamentary Committee on Trade, Industry and Tourism to discuss issues of procurement, PPDA director general Eddington Chilapondwa said they are looking into the issue of delays in procurement processes and assured the committee that there is tremendous improvement.
He said the authority had staffing challenges but there is now recruitment of officials to ensure that public procurement approval processes are handled with speed.
Said Chilapondwa: “It is very true there have been delays experienced in the processing of approval to government entities and ministries. But I should be quick to say that government authorised us to recruit so that there is more capacity.
“At the same time, my officers took an initiative from within resources. Young men from the university came together and came up with a system which is an e-service. Now the issues of delay are very isolated, they involve those procurements that are not very clear to us. But now speed is there.”
He added that sometimes delays are as a result of the quality of submissions made by procurement officials in government institutions. He said some submissions are questionable and are sent back.
Chilapondwa said the authority will ensure that people handling procurement processes in public institutions have the capacity.
He further informed the committee that PPDA is moving towards eliminating interfaces between suppliers and procurement officers, adding the procurement processes will be automated so that processes are done online.
Committee chairperson Simplex Chithyola-Banda said PPDA should ensure that procurement processes are properly conducted and protect public resources.
He said: “As PPDA you are mandated to look into public procurements and disposal of assets. You have to ensure that processes follow proper procedures.”
There have been concerns from various institutions and parliamentarians that procurement processes in government take long which in turn affects projects.
In some cases, the value of the project is affected when prices of goods go up. As a result, there are shortfalls and projects fail to be completed or take time to be completed.
