The National Public Procurement Authority (NPPA) in keeping in line with its mandate of providing a timely and updated Price Norm to guide Government Procurement officials, has launched the 2nd Quarter Price Norm.
The well-attended ceremony took place in the conference room of the Ministry of Finance at George Street, Freetown on Thursday 22nd April, 2021.
Giving a background of the early beginnings of the creation of a Price Norm, NPPA Board Chairman, Alfred B. Kandeh reminded his audience that at the initial stage of creating the Price Norm, it was apparent that there was much enthusiasm and stakeholders crafted what eventually emerged as a Price Norm that was universally accepted. He maintained that following that initial success, the NPPA has ensured that it reviews the Norm quarterly basis so as to keep abreast with current price norms as related to government procurement activities.
Fodie Konneh, acting Director Procurement Director in the Ministry of Finance did not mince his words when he said that the Price Norm is not only useful to Procurement Officers but is also very useful to statisticians, and a very useful tool in financial management across the board.
In his brief but very captivating address, Chief Executive of NPPA, Ibrahim Brima Swarray started out by reflecting on the fact that few days from now Sierra Leone would be sixty one years. He rhetorically asked: What do we have to show for it? He used the opportunity to prevail on members of the audience, particularly Procurement Officers to do what they can to make Sierra Leone the envy of other nations by doing the right thing.
He commended President Julius Maada Bio for giving young academically inclined people the opportunity to serve their country and prove themselves worthy of his trust by doing the right thing to move the country forward.
He maintained that the NPPA will continue to produce the Price Norm on a quarterly basis “until our national financial situation stabilizes and improves.”
He used the opportunity to comment on adherence to the prices in the Norm. “A misconception held by most procuring entities is that the NPPA requires that their prices should be exactly that contained in the Price Norm. As a responsible authority, the regulatory body cannot dictate such. However, we do require that procuring entities should use best effort in working towards obtaining the most competitive prices in their purchases and these should be reflective of those contained in the Norm.”
He went on to state that more importantly, the NPPA would like to see prices being obtained that are more competitive than that in the Norm. He encouraged entities which beat Norm prices, and promised that he would bring such to the attention of the Authority. “This would assure that we all work assiduously towards obtaining value for money in all our activities,” Mr. Swarray noted.
However, he lamented that in order to attain this, procuring entities must be responsible, conscientious and diligent in their procurement activities and work assiduously towards the tenets of value for money.
He used the opportunity to caution Procurement Officers that the Price Norm should not be used negatively by using the costs contained in it to buy inferior quality goods and trying to justify same by the Norm.
He emphasized that the Price Norm is the law and is also definitely a price control mechanism but that it does not seek to control the prices in the market. “Its overall objective is to bring prices within the public sector to those that obtain in the local market rather than the alarming, bloated prices that have been associated with public sector procurement over the years,” the NPPA Chief Executive noted.
He beseeched all Procurement Officers to be proactive, loyal and truthful and called on all procuring entities to provide the NPPA with feedback on all areas of the Norm which they think can help improve the Norm.
Climax of the meeting was the launch of the 2nd Quarter (April-June) Price Norm, followed by a question and answer session.
