PNG’s National Parliament today passed amendments to the National Procurement Act 2018 introduced by Finance and Rural Development Minister Sir John Pundari.
It has voted 86 to 7 in approving the new changes. In short, this means:
1. District Procurement Committee powers increased from K2.5 million up to K5 million.
2. Provincial Procurement Committee powers increases from K5 million up to K10 million.
3. National Tender Committee powers to remain at K10 million.
4. National Executive Council to deals with amounts over K10 million.
5. Contract value for PNG nationally owned companies increased from K30 million to K50 million.
Sir John in tabling the bill said the financial instructions of the changes to the Bill is to come from the Finance Department in due course.
He said the intention of changes is to correct procedures in the use of public funds.
“It also increases the threshold of approval powers of districts, provinces and at national level. The Bill gives clarity to composition of procurement committees, simplifies processes, clarify roles of DDA CEOs.
“The Bill does not remove accountability demanded by law of the committees. The law removes MPs to be in evaluation process of tenders or de-politicises the process, leaving only the technical evaluation committee to do so.
“The law removes bottlenecks and decentralising powers of spending public funds. Penalty of breaches of law is K2 million fine or up to 15 years imprisonment. It is a robust and clear legislation,” Sir John said.