By DALCY LULUA
MINISTER for Finance and National Planning Hon. Renbo Paita has announced that the National Procurement Commission (NPC) will be undergoing some reforms including increasing board members threshold and doing digital procurement.
He made the announcement during the swearing-in of the new NPC Board Chairman and board members last Thursday.
“NPC Acting Chief Executive Officer Joe Sapa and I have been talking about this and with the chairman and new board members in place, we will be looking at major reforms in NPC,” Paita said.
“We will be increasing board members threshold, so we don’t really give all the work to National Executive Council (NEC).
“At NEC and Cabinet, we have a lot of meetings and sometimes we don’t give priority to expenditure things like contracts.”
He further highlighted the second reform which is digital procurement.
“We make digital procurement so that people don’t have to meet this and that; the system will approve projects and contracts so we can make decisions without being coerced or pressured,” Paita noted.
“All of you are from Papua New Guinea and you understand, they’ll say this lunch or that lunch money and that lunch money is a big cost to the contractors.”
He added that the system would protect board members, the Minister and the Cabinet as well.
“We will look at that and all other restructures that we hope to see from the Acting CEO and the board as well.
“I need the support of the board on how we can reform NPC.”
Minister Paita further reminded the new NPC board members to remember their oaths while performing their duties.
“You made your oath, remember your oath, if I come and pressure the chairman and your board members, you can just tell me to remember my oath, and tell other ministers the same.”
