Govt set to revamp system

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Finance and Treasury told Parliament yesterday that the Government is in the process of overhauling the entire procurement system.
Finance Minister James Marape, in response to Wabag MP Dr Lino Tom’s query on the procurement process, said the move was to ensure that all procurement had a common registry and filing system so it became part of the Government’s planning process.
“For instance, when you contract for aid post or health centre without proper registry, it gets lost in one of those projects that appears and
disappears and there is no mat-
ching recurrent allocation to ensure that asset remained active,” Marape said.
“We are trying to align all procurement, the district development authority concept allows for you to have procurement at your level and at the moment it’s for K500,000 that you can procure.
“We want to have a central procurement system set up so that every procurement that is happening has a registry attached to it
for audio and compliance and, more importantly, recurrent maintenance so those assets are
totally alighted to prevent possible abuse.
“These are reforms and we ask the MPs to look at a possible procurement reform process that we will disseminate to everyone to create a safety procurement process for our country.
“That is relevant from now.”
Marape said the current procurement system was 20 years old when the Public Finance Management Act was created.
In reference to Section 61 to procure, Marape said statutory bodies and organisations such as National Capital District Commission (NCDC) with their own engineering unit have their procurement but seek finance department for clearance.