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Momodou
Denmark
11633 Posts |
 Posted - 11 Nov 2024 : 16:36:39
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A full throttle assault on the Public Procurement System of the Gambia Civil and Public Services
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The assault on the Government’s procurement system started immediately after the July 22nd 1994 coup d’etat led by Lt. Col. Yaya Jammeh immediately upon seizing power in July 1994. One of the first acts of the AFPRC government of Jammeh was to seize the Major Tender Board (MTB) and transfer it to State House from the Ministry of Finance, effectively transforming the then 29-year old Lt Colonel into Chairman of the MTB as well as leader of the military junta. As the self-appointed Chairman of the MTB, Jammeh replaced the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance who was the statutory holder of the Chairmanship of the MTB.
The rationale offered for the move was that the junta had only two years, a timetable forced onto them by the donor community, to hand over power back to the civilians and the MTB process of awarding contracts was too time consuming and thus doesn’t bode well for the expeditious handing over power to the civilians.
Fast forward to January, 2017 when the coalition government of Adama Barrow assumed office and no sooner than in April 2017 that the assault on the public procurement system resumed with the abolition of the Major Tender Board ( MTB) and its core functions decentralized. Now ministers of implementing ministries do not only have a say in the decision-making process much sooner than ever before in the process, they’ve actually been given the mandate to drive the process from the inception. Ministers have effectively been transformed into chairpersons of their respective ministries mini-Tender Boards with President Barrow having the final say.
Attempts are now being made to obliterate what’s left of the bits and pieces of the former MTB, a storied relic of what once ensured that public funds were appropriately utilized for the purposes for which they were appropriated by the National Assembly. Last week, some of its members used the NA building as a backdrop to host an event where nine government institutions were unabashedly granted the power to conduct their own procurement of goods and services, leapfrogging the Public Procurement Agency (GPPA).
The ministries and other institutions affected are the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, Ministry of Transport, Works and Infrastructure, Ministry of Gender, Children and Socia Welfare, Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, Central Bank of The Gambia, Independent Electoral Commission and The Gambia Tourism and Hospitality Institute.
This list represents ministries and agencies with storied past that collectively form the backbone of of what used to be the Civil Service. Our viability as a nation depends to a large extent on how successful we manage these financial resources a substantial part of which is provided by our foreign partners in development in the form of loans and grants.
Unfortunately, the tender process is seen by many politicians and civil servants as a potential avenue for the solicitation of bribes. Many contract implementation outcomes have been extremely poor due to a contract award mechanism specifically design to skew the outcome in favor of the preferred contractor and not to the best evaluated which is defined as the lowest priced bid that complies with the technical, financial and other requirements outlined in the bidding document.
The politicization of the tender process commenced the day Yaya Jammeh and his military junta seized power. The Barrow administration has moved faster and more aggressively than expected in seizing full control of nearly the entire tender process and the award of contracts for one reason and one reason alone - MONEY.
Let’s see if the donor community, especially the World Bank, IMF, AfDB and some of our bilateral partners will react to this very aggressive assault on what’s left of the public procurement system which served us relatively well from 1965 to July 22, 1994.
Sidi Sanneh
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A clear conscience fears no accusation - proverb from Sierra Leone |
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A full throttle assault on the Public Procurement
