FAQ About ppda_faqs

Public Procurement means acquisition by purchase, rental, lease, hire purchase, license,tenancy, franchise, or any type of works, services or supplies or any combination' up to the time a user consumes or utilises a service as per the requirement and in line with the PPDA Act and other legal frameworks

Section 34 (2) of the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Act, 2003 and Regulation 60 require a user department to prepare a work plan for procurement based on the approved budget. • A Procurement Plan is a comprehensive statement of requirements to be procured over the life of the plan – usually one year. • Procurement Planning is a systematic process of setting achievable procurement objectives. • It entails setting the strategies and defining the timeframe within which the objectives have to be achieved • It is consultative in such a way that users are supposed to develop their individual(departmental/sectional) procurement plans & eventually amalgamated into a master procurement plan for the entire organization/ministry

The law sets thresholds for procurements which fall in the micro procurement category. Under Micro procurement, there is no bid period, no evaluation done by the evaluation committee no need for approval by the contracts committee. The law empowers the Accounting Officer (AO) to appoint any person or persons in the entity to handle micro procurement and may upon their discretion reduce the value. However the AO remains accountable.

Yes, Post-Primary Institutions are covered under the PPDA law. These Institutions are far ends of the Ministry of Education and Sports as a PDE. While they are user units in one way, in another way they are public institutions entrusted with public funds. This entails conducting procurement and disposal through the structures and procedures that are prescribed by the PPDA Act. However, a Guideline for procurement and disposal in Schools/ Post-Primary Institutions (Guideline Reference; 1/2004) is in place and this lays down procurement and disposal rules and regulations for goods, works and services. It customises the PPDA Act, Regulations to the school setting. However it is not intended to replace the Act or the Regulations and therefore users must consult the PPDA Act, Regulations frequently so as not to miss the detailed provisions required.

The school Head teacher or Principal is the Accounting Officer

• It is composed of 3- 5 members nominated by the Accounting Officer

• Approval of the members is by the Secretary to the Treasury After approval the members are formally appointed by the Accounting Officer They include: • Chairperson

• Secretary

• A maximum of three other members – one of whom shall be a lawyer

• (3 members to form quorum)

• Members of the CC are appointed from among serving public officers employed on a full time basis with the PDE or appropriate external body

• A person shall be a member of the contracts committee in his or her individual capacity as distinct from his/her position or designation

A Preference scheme is an arrangement where advantage is given to local bidders at the financial evaluation of bids for works, goods and services in a public procurement process.

• Where the open domestic or open international bidding methods are used during financial evaluation of works, supplies and non-consultancy services ;

• In respect of consultancy services, where proposals are invited from both national and foreign consultants and the quality and cost based selection method or the least cost selection methods are used during financial evaluation.

It is applied by adding a specified percentage margin to a financial bid or proposal price of those bidders who do not qualify for preference (a foreign bid/ proposal) thereby raising their bid or proposal price.

• When procuring goods, works or services under open bidding the following shall apply:

• Margin of preference shall be 15% in respect of goods and 7% in respect of works or services

Only locally made goods qualify for preference schemes where:

• The labor or the value addition to the goods is more than 30%;and

• The production facility in which the goods are manufactured, assembled or processed is in Uganda and is engaged in the manufacturing, assembling or processing of the goods at the time of submission of the bid.

A contractor and a consultant qualify for preference scheme where:

• The contractor or consultant is an individual , is a Ugandan citizen;

• where the Company is registered in Uganda and more than 50% is owned by Ugandan citizens (share allotment Form A3); and

• Where a bidder is a legal entity and more than 50% of the share capital is owned by the Government of Uganda 

A reservation scheme serves to set aside procurement opportunities to benefit a target group of providers depending on the objectives of the scheme. The PPDA in consultation with a competent Authority and relevant stakeholders is mandated to specify the public procurement contracts to be subjected to a reservation scheme and the PPDA designates the particular sectors, within a specified geographical area, that are eligible to participate in the reservation scheme.

• To promote the use of local expertise and materials;

• To promote the participation of local communities or local organizations; or promote the application of specific technologies.

• Encourage providers that are not registered to register their businesses with Uganda Registration Services Bureau ;

• Build capacity of the local providers.

• Approach the PPDA on potential areas for reservation

• A bid securing declaration is an undertaking in writing that a bidder will not withdraw the bid or reject to sign the contract.

The Authority no longer grants waivers/ deviations. The Authority may only consider applications by PDEs to deviate from the use of standard bidding documents, procedural forms or any other attendant documents which are not suitable for a procurement and disposal process.

The display of the procurement plan does not affect the procurement process since the award of contract is not only based on price but follows the evaluation criteria stated in the bidding document. The bidders will still be subjected to competition to determine the best offer.

The circumstances of an emergency procurement are such that the entity cannot wait for lapse of the stand still period. The regulations provide that the BEB notice does not apply to micro and direct procurements as well as emergencies procurement.

The law does not specify who to donate to. However, donation(s) should be done to private entities to benefit the community.

There is a provision for extension of bid security and bid validity period in case of delays. It’s null and void to enter into a contract where the bid validity or bid security has expired