Dar es Salaam. Former President of Tanzania Jakaya Kikwete has challenged the Public Procurement Appeals Authority (PPAA) to explore how public procurement can save government funds while ensuring value for money in ongoing projects.
He issued this challenge on Saturday during his visit to the PPAA booth at the Law Week exhibition, which began on January 25, 2025, at Nyerere Square in Dodoma.
“When I was President, one local council built a building for Sh15 million through their own efforts, but they were later told they had to follow the bidding process. Once the bidding was announced, they showed me a building that ended up costing Sh45 million,” the fourth phase President recounted.
This highlighted the need for stakeholders in public procurement to ensure that the laws facilitate genuine value for money in various projects.
Earlier, PPAA Senior Officer Stanley Jackson informed Mr Kikwete that over the past four years, the PPAA had handled 162 cases arising from public procurement processes.
In these cases, he expounded, the PPAA blocked awards for 35 tenders worth approximately Sh583.6 billion due to bidders lacking financial capacity or the necessary qualifications to execute the contracts.
“This action prevented substandard project execution that could lead to public funds loss and delays in appropriate development for citizens,” Mr Jackson stated.
Additionally, he announced that the PPAA, in collaboration with the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA), has completed the development of an electronic module for submitting and addressing complaints and appeals within the Electronic Public Procurement System (NeST).
This module will allow bidders to electronically submit complaints and appeals arising from procurement processes without having to visit the relevant offices.
To facilitate the use of this module, the PPAA and PPRA are organizing training sessions for bidders and procurement agency officials in the Mwanza, Shinyanga, Kagera, Musoma, Geita, and Simiyu Regions.
These training sessions are scheduled to take place from February 4 to 6, 2025, at the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) hall in the Mwanza Region.
This year’s Law Week is themed: “Tanzania 2050: The Role of Institutions in Upholding Justice to Achieve National Development Goals.”
