January 17, 2019
By Ibrahim Tarawallie
Financial Secretary ,Sahr Lahai Jusu and NPPA boss, Ibrahim Brima Swarray
Financial Secretary in the Ministry of Finance has cautioned procurement officers to make sure that they carry out their responsibility according to the law and lay down procedures.
According to Sahr Lahai Jusu, large percentage of government expenditure goes to procurement, which was why majority of the cases at the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) are procurement- related.
He was speaking in the conference room of the ministry during the official launch of the 4th quarter Price Norm for 2018 by the National Public Procurement Authority (NPPA).
He emphasised the need for procurement officers to put price norms in all their advertising bids for procurement and warned that any procurement without adherence to the price norm will not be honoured.
He thanked the leadership of the NPPA for making sure that they cut down leakages on procurement for the past months.
“This price norm is a guide and not a fix price. It will give minimum freedom for institutions to operate. It is comprehensive because lots of improvement has been done from the last one,” he said.
He assured that the government will continue to provide the necessary funds to the country’s procurement agency for the price norm to be coming out quarterly.
Chief Executive Officer of NPPA, Ibrahim Brima Swarray, assured of his commitment and determination to ensure that people see the procurement not as a clerical job, but a profession.
He said the only way Sierra Leone can move forward is to ensure that resources are used judiciously by improving procurement.
“We need to save our country from this present situation and we as procurement officers have a role to play if that is to happen,” he said.
By ensuring that the price norm is available on a quarterly basis, Mr. Swarray said it behooves procuring entities to make sure that it is used and purchase prices are competitively based, especially in line with the norm.
“Producing price norms on a periodic and regular basis is the first step in price rationalization across entities,” he said.