Africa-Press – Uganda. The Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Appeals Tribunal has revealed that in a period of two years, the tribunal has managed to save Shs350b worth of cases through online hearing.
The amendment to the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets (PPDA) Act in 2011 provided for, among others, the establishment of the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Appeals Tribunal as an independent body.
The tribunal came into force in July 2014. Its core function is to hear applications for review of decisions of the PPDA made to it by aggrieved bidders or aggrieved procuring and disposing entities.
Speaking to the media during the swearing-in ceremony of the new members in Kampala on Thursday, Mr Francis Gimara, the chairperson of the tribunal, said with online hearing, they have been able to listen to all administrative reviews before them.
“We have been able to resolve all these cases in time and the value was more than Shs350b worth of the cases,” he said.
Mr Gimara said the reason is that if you lock up all that money in procurement, the citizens get hurt and their role is to hear these matters quickly so that the procurement can proceed.
“For instance, if a road has to be build, we then have to be innovative when a dispute regarding that procurement is brought before us. We can say that because of the pandemic, we wait but that will be costly to government in terms of resources and the citizens who want to use the road,” he said.
Mr Gimara added that as a tribunal, they have to be innovative to ensure the disputes are heard and resolved
“For us, we have adopted technology and it has helped us to hear matters expeditiously and reduce backlog,” he added.
Mr Gimara added that they mostly attend to procurement disputes, which involves scrutinising documents from the evaluation committee to establish whether there was transparency in the process that led to the award of a tender to a particular bidder opposed to the other.
“The bidders may say some documents are not right and mostly, it’s about the procurement cycle up to the level of announcement of the successful bidder,” he said.
Principle Judge Flavian Zeija, who officiated the function, urged the newly appointed members to be mindful of the principles the Judiciary holds high to maintain their profession.
“The principles include independence, impartiality, integrity, compliant, equality, competence and diligence,” he said
The Principle Judge added that these principles are the bedrock of the administration of justice.
“Never forget that observance of those principles should be accompanied by hard work and commitment to their tasks,” he said.
He also urged members not to fail their colleagues intentionally because their job involves team and hard work.
“You must work hard and let your work speak for you,” he said.
Background
Before, the tribunal had six members led by Mr Francis Gimara. All the members were male. As such, the board requested for more two female members; Patricia Kahije Asiimwe and Charity Kyalisima, who took their oaths yesterday.
The other members include Mr Mansoor Atiku Saki, Mr Nelson Nerima, Mr Thomas Isanga Brookes, Mr Geoffrey Nuwagira Kakira, and Mr Paul Kalumba.
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