Public procurement board gets to work
Newly appointed board of directors for the Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Authority (PPDA) last week got down to business when they met the authority’s executive management to lay the groundwork for collaboration.
The PPDA board members include Amos Nyambo, Madalitso M’meta, Constance Musopole and Engineer Martin Chizalema. The Chief Secretary to the Government, Secretary to the Treasury and the Solicitor General or their representatives complete the membership, but in ex officio capacity.
During the meeting with PPDA management, Kelious Mlenga and Rex Chiluzi represented the Solicitor General and the Chief Secretary, respectively.
Private practice lawyer M’meta, who is chairing the board, said their immediate task would be to operationalise the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets (PPD) Act passed by Parliament in 2017.
He said the board wants to quickly set up a solid strategic foundation for the authority and manage the functional and structural changes as the law requires.
The PPDA, which previously operated as Office of the Director of Public Procurement (ODPP), is in a process of transitioning to a more independent authority responsible for the regulation, monitoring and oversight of procurement and disposal of public assets in Malawi.
M’meta said the authority needs to quickly make use of the avenues for revenue generation as provided for in the new law to ensure that it becomes fully independent.
He said: “An entire institution can be suffocated, if it does not have funds for its operations. With inadequate funding, our mission to regulate, monitor and to provide oversight will suffer. The regulations that guarantee our financial independence should be prioritised without further delay.”
Since the enactment of the PPD Act in July 2017, the authority has been operating without a substantive director general and deputy director general. The board has since appointed Timothy Kalembo as acting director general.
The board has also since initiated the process of recruiting the director general and deputy director general for the PPDA.
With the board in place, the authority is expected to discharge some statutory decisions such as enforcing penalties for breaches of the new Act.
