The Commissioner of Public Procurement
in the Ministry of Finance and Planning, Mr Fredrick Mwakibinga,
explained here that priority for awarding tenders will be on industries
and companies producing goods and services using local materials; and
with the local labour force of 80 per cent.
“In the same vein, local government
authorities will be required to allocate 30 per cent of their tenders to
special groups in their communities including women, youth and
disabled,” Mr Mwakibinga said here yesterday during an awareness seminar
to parliamentarians.
Mr Mwakibinga said the proposed
amendments are crucial to enhance efficiency and transparency in public
procurement; given the fact that 70pc of the government budget is
channelled to procurement of goods and services.
The government tabled for the First
Reading in the National Assembly last Thursday, the Public Procurement
(Amendment) Bill, 2016, which seeks to curb loopholes in public purchase
that have led to inflated costs and corruption in public procurement.
Among others, the proposed amendments
are envisioned to set standards for goods and services to be purchased
by the state, making use of benefits of bulk procurement as well as
procuring items as per prevailing market prices.
“In the past, for instance, we had
standards for all government vehicles, furniture, houses and
stationeries, among others, but the case is different at present,’’
noted the commissioner.
“If we had specific types of such
vehicles, it would have been much easier to build capacity for the
Tanzania Electrical, Mechanical and Electronics Services (Temesa) to
provide maintenance for the cars,” the official explained.
Mr Mwakibinga elaborated that the
envisaged amendments will as well reduce the time and process used by
procuring entities to make the procedure more efficient. “Bulk
procurement in public purchase will also improve our bargaining power in
the market through direct buying from manufacturers rather than
middlemen,” he told lawmakers at the seminar.
The official noted as well that
political will was crucial in implementing the new legislation,
expressing concerns that thieving public officials have been hailed in
their communities rather than condemned for their ill-acts. Contributing
to the presentation, Lupa MP Mr Victor Mwambalaswa (CCM) was of a view
that not only the flaws in the current legislation that was the problem
but also officials involved in procurement entities.
“There are some institutions with
incompetent officers in their procurement management units and this is a
problem; we need competent people for the job,” he submitted. The MP
was as well irked that Tanzania lacked a special policy to guide
purchase of motor vehicles as it was in neighbouring countries.
The views were shared by Kigamboni MP Dr
Faustine Ndugulile (CCM) who suggested that the country should put in
place a policy on procuring, maintenance and disposal of public goods.
He as well expressed concern that most
government institutions were not making use of warranties provided to
them to repair vehicles within three years of purchase or 90,000
kilometres of road use.
Special Seats MP Ms Lucy Mageledi
(Chadema) decried “the red tape in public procurement’’ while Moshi
Urban MP Mr Jafary Michael (Chadema) wanted finance and planning
committees in local governments to be given powers to intervene when
they detect flaws in awarding tenders.
Korogwe Rural MP Mr Stephen Ngonyani
(CCM) had proposed that lawmakers and local councils should be part of
the tender boards in the constituencies. But the proposal was opposed by
the majority of MPs at the seminar.
Nkasi North MP Mr Ally Keissy (CCM) said
the proposed amendments were long overdue, noting that most of
government purchases were overdue. “These changes should have been
brought ten years ago.
I also oppose inclusion of MPs and local
councillors in the tender boards since many of them are thieves and
thus cannot be trusted,” the firebrand legislator charged.
For his part, Bukene MP Mr Selemani Zedi
(CCM) was skeptical whether the special groups will be able to
participate in the tenders since most of them were not registered for
Value Added Tax (VAT) and thus not using electronic fiscal devices.
“The government has stated that starting
next year, it will only do business with traders with EFDs; yet these
special groups -- women, youth and the disabled -- do not have the
electronic machines,” he noted with concern.
At the same occasion, the Minister for
Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Dr Harrison Mwakyembe, said the
government will translate the envisaged legislation into Kiswahili to
allow broader understanding and participation by all the people
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