2bn/- wasted in bad contracts

Judge Mihayo

EIGHT district and municipal councils and two government entities made questionable payments to contractors amounting to 2.2bn/-, according to the latest Public Procurement Regulatory Authority’s audit report.

The PPRA Acting Board Chairman, Judge Thomas Mihayo, said in Dar es Salaam that the board will immediately appoint a verification team that will carry out detailed measurements of the works and analysis of the payments made to enable it to take appropriate measures against the culprits.

“The team will recommend appropriate disciplinary measures including recovery of the money paid unreasonably to contractors,” said Judge Mihayo, while issuing a public notice on the reports of procurement audits carried out by PPRA for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2012.

The ten entities which made questionable payments to contractors are Kilosa, Ulanga, Kilombero, Mbeya, Morogoro and Chato district councils. The list also includes Kibaha Town Council, Sumbawanga Municipal Council, Registration Insolvency Trusteeship Agency (RITA) and Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF).

Judge Mihayo said that the verification will be done jointly with the responsible contractors, consultants, project managers and clients’ representatives. The project performance was evaluated in planning, procurement, contract administration and the quality of work.

However, he pointed out that there was improvement of procurement audits compliance from 39 per cent in the Financial Year 2006/07 to 74 per cent in 2011/12 and that more capacity building efforts are being made by PPRA to improve the level of compliance. 

PPRA Chief Executive Officer, Dr Ramadhani Mlinga, said the procurement compliance audit was carried out in 121 procuring entities in the financial year 2011/12 amounting to 2.4 trillion/-.

He added that the compliance audits included 41 Ministries, Independent Departments and Agencies (MDAs), 45 Public Authorities (PAs) and 35 Local Government Authorities (LGAs).

“The audits sought to determine whether the procedures, processes and documentations for procurement and contracting were in accordance with the provision in the Public Procurement Audit (PPA) 2004, Public Procurement Regulations,” he said. 

Dr Mlinga further noted that the audits were intended to identify weakness in complying with the PPA 2004 and Regulations.

The aim was to assist the audited procuring entities to take appropriate measures such as implementation of appropriate capacity building strategies and improving controls and taking disciplinary measures where necessary.

Source: The Daily News,http://www.dailynews.co.tz, reported by Lodvick Kazoka in Dar es Salaam

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