Participants during the Sensitization Workshop for Women-Owned Businesses on Participation in Public Procurement at Hotel Africana
KAMPALA, on the 30th of April 2024, a Sensitization Workshop for Women-Owned Businesses on Participation in Public Procurement in Uganda was convened at Hotel Africana organized by Africa Freedom of Information Centre (AFIC) in collaboration with Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Authority (PPDA) under the Open Contracting supported LIFT programme.
There were representatives for the youth, women, and persons with disabilities including the Hon minister of State for Disability Affairs, Asamo Hellen Grace also represented the Minister of Gender, Labor, and Social Development, and the UN women who promoted this agenda.
Related posts
The engagement was essential to create awareness of the legal framework that the government has put out to support Youth, women, and persons with disabilities in their participation in public procurement. This law was enacted in July 2021 by the president of Uganda where specific procurements must be reserved for this group under the Act.
Mr. Benson Turamye, Executive Director of PPDA while addressing the media, said that through several consultations on 22nd March 2024, reservation guidelines were gazette, published, and became effective in operationalizing the law, in other words, putting clearer that section of the law on what the government must do to ensure that this group anticipates and that line, 15% of the public procurement budget must be spent on this group and also contracts below 30 million in terms of central government entities and contracts up to 10 million in terms of local government entities must be reserved for competition among this group.
Mr. Benson Turamye, Executive Director of PPDA
“The message is that PPDA will have this group registered so they are identified in all regions in all districts where we are going to provide simplified bidding documents and requirements,” said the Executive Director of PPDA
According to Benson Turamye, this group is not supposed to get the bid securities but must have a bid-securing declaration form where they must be known through registration in terms of PPDA registration so that they are in their national register that whoever wants to pick from this group knows where to get to them but to essentially also call upon other government agencies to provide supportive products, for example, financing.
“How can they get financing, for example, if they want to register with Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB) to get free registration, buying a bidding document is free now because that is within our mandate, and ensuring that there are timely payments by the accounting officers,” he explained
However, the Hon minister of State for Disability Affairs, Asamo Hellen Grace informed that PPDA has a reservation scheme for Women, Youth, and Persons with disabilities which has not been officialized so much yet the women have been empowered and need to be involved in procurement processes.
The Hon Minister of State for Disability Affairs, Asamo Hellen Grace
Asamo believes that there are women out there who can carry out high procurement areas and hopes that PPDA guidelines will involve them and that they are sensitized on how to get into these procurement processes.
“As a minister, I am happy because these reserved positions for women, youth, and persons with disabilities are going to be a critical arm in helping the government enhance procurement processes and women’s participation in the economic space,” she said
Gilbert Sendugwa Executive director of AFIC informed the gathering that the government spends over 60% of the national budget through public procurement, making it a critical policy instrument that can be used to empower everyone financially and economically.
Gilbert Sendugwa Executive Director of AFIC
According to Sendugwa, their research found that for various legal, policy, operational, and social-cultural barriers, women-owned businesses are significantly excluded from participating in public procurement.
“Inability to meet stiff legal requirements, inability to prepare and submit responsive bids, lack of capital and access to information as well as delayed payments presented some of the most daunting challenges. As a result, only a fraction of the 38.2 of the business was registered in the government supplier database and less than 1% were participating in public procurement, 69% of whom were based in Kampala and Wakiso and mainly in low-value contracts that have small profit margins,” Sendugwa addressed
“It is therefore very pleasing that the Government has responded positively to these findings by undertaking major policy reforms including reservation of contracts for women businesses in every government agency across the country,” he appreciated
He however points out that despite the reservation of contracts for women, many cannot take up this opportunity due to lack of information and skills to prepare and submit responsive bids and successfully execute awarded contracts.
“It is for this reason that AFIC is partnering with PPDA to address this challenge by training women entrepreneurs on the reservation of contracts and how to make the best out of it,” he mentioned
However, Jacob Eyeru the Chairperson of the National Youth Council of Uganda was happy with the engagement as it was an arrival at the door space where this group can be able to open businesses and also be able to compete with the assurance of getting government contracts.
Jacob Eyeru the Chairperson of the National Youth Council of Uganda
Eyeru believes that there is still work to do since one cannot compete if they do not have a formal business. “And so we are now going to URSB to say, how do we make sure that we waive registration fees for women and the youth businesses in the villages? I am very happy that the steps we are taking today are the steps that we need to take to develop our country,” Eyeru mentioned
According to Eyeru, We cannot talk about creating jobs without talking about facilitating the environment that makes it easy for a young person a young woman, and a person with a disability to own a business and have a marketplace.
“If the government has some money to procure textbooks and desks. Why don’t young people bring those? Many young people are into carpentry and welding, if you’re procuring windows, those contracts that are below 30 million at the national level or central government level. We are saying those will be for young people. The contracts that are below 10 million, we are saying will be for young people, women, and persons with disability in local government. So we are really happy about this,” the Chairperson of the National Youth Council of Uganda explained
Mr. Benson Turamye addressed the delays in the procurement process by PPDA
He said that the law has been resolved as an amendment of the PPD Act 2021 and pointed out that the president of the country was disappointed about the delays.
“Now it is an offense if we delay a procurement process and I will give an example, if you are a member of the contracts committee because that is a committee in all governments that awards contracts and an evaluation report is submitted to make an award decision and you delayed more than 10 days it is an offense. And if convicted, you can spend three years in prison or pay a fine of 25-20 million or both,” he informed
“So, my role as the PPDA executive director is to ensure that these provisions of the law are adhered to, and if any breach then I can use the powers that have been given to me within the legal framework to prosecute and I am also happy to mention that the office of The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has given us prosecution powers. Our legal chambers are going to start prosecuting those who go against the law,” he also added
According to Turamye, the procurement systems are going to be automated where they have started implementing the electronic government procurement system and this is going to simplify the processes because a member of the evaluation team will not have an excuse that they didn’t have a quorum to start evaluation and with the automated system, one can even evaluate from their sitting room with internet and a computer.
