Procurement process should be transparent - NPA Director

Ramani Kangaraarachchi

COLOMBO: The procurement process has to be carried out in a transparent manner, maximizing participation and benefit, said. National Procurement Agency (NPA) Director Ivan Tissera.

He was delivering the keynote address at a seminar on "Procurement Practices in the Construction Industry" at Ceylon Continental Hotel recently.

Tissera said that more than 90% of the country's capital expenditure is disbursed through procurement. Construction activities take the major share of this capital expenditure. The procurement procedure was introduced to Public Sector by provisions in Financial Regulations and circulars issued time to time.

The Government in 1996 published a document entitled "Guidelines on Government Tender Procedure" which was the first in the world.

A comprehensive revision was done in clearing many confusions in the system this year with the publication of Procurement Guidelines 2006, he said.

He said there were two parties in the procurement process namely procuring entities and the bidders and at a certain stage the bidder becomes either supplier or contractor.

The Secretary to line Ministry, being the Chief Accounting Officer is the ultimate responsible person for any procurement carried out within his ministry and the role of the NPA is to formulate policies and procedures and ensure that they are adhered to by the Government Agencies.

However, Tissera warned that NPA is taking action to eliminate wrong practices that are observed in certain procuring entities by changing the instructions to Bidders and Conditions of Contract.

He said the five benchmarks that procurement Guidelines endeavour to achieve are a) Maximising economy resulting in least cost with high quality b) Adhering to prescribed standards c) Providing fair and maximum opportunity to interested parties d) Ensuring transparency and consistency in the selective procedure e) Retaining confidentiality of information.

"The effort of any procuring entity should be to achieve the above benchmarks, in transparent manner so that finally the government would obtain the best deal in a speedy and transparent manner", he said.

Tissera also shared some aspects about the Government's view in regard to the procurement process as there was a large number of contractors were present at this seminar organised by the Chamber of Construction Industry.