Today, Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Authority (PPDA) Board of Directors led by the Chairman, Mr. Julius K.Ishungisa held a meeting with the Accountant General’s Office (AGO) on Public Procurement matters in the country. The meeting is part of the regular engagements between the PPDA and the line ministry (Finance) on matters concerning the performance of public procurement and current Public Finance Management Reforms (PFM).The reforms aim at improving compliance of Procuring and Disposing Entities (PDEs) with the Public Procurement Legal and Regulatory Framework.
Key among the issues discussed include the following;
I. Fast tracking the rollout of the pilot phase of the Electronic Government Procurement (eGP) system that is scheduled to be launched on March 31st 2020 in ten select PDEs.ie (Uganda National Roads Authority, Kampala Capital City Authority, National Information Technology Authority Uganda, Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, Ministry of Water and Environment, Uganda Civil Aviation Authority, National Social Security Fund, PPDA, MPigi DLG and Jinja DLG. With the roll out of EGP, the bidding process will be online, fast and more transparent.
II. The PPDA Amendment Bill due to be assented to by the President. The PPDA Act has been reviewed to make Public procurement and Disposal process faster and a tool to accelerate service delivery to the people.
III. Introduction of the Electronic Local Purchase Order (e-LPO) to ensure transparency in the public procurement process. The e-LPO will replace the internally system generated paper LPOs issued by the different Procurement and Disposal Units (PDUs) that are prone to manipulation.
IV. Promoting professionalism among the Procurement cadres as key players in the performance of the public procurement and Disposal sector.
V. Supporting the implementation of the National Public Sector Procurement Policy. The policy was issued in April 2019 and aims at making Public procurement a strategic function in national development.