By Emmanuel Eumu
Alebtong District– In a letter dated 21st September, 2023, the Alebtong District boss, Daniel Kennedy Odongo temporarily suspended the district procurement process particularly concerning the award of contracts for FY 2023/2024 due to suspected irregularities in the process.
He briefed media at the district headquarters stating that the technical evaluation process for contracts awards has been suspended until further notice.
Odongo, who also chairs the Lango sub region LCV and mayor’s forums, confirmed that he has written to the chief Administrative officer (CAO) over the matter.
He emphasized that this action has been taken to ensure transparency in the Alebtong District local Government.
He further stressed that he has not taken this step to disrupt the procurement process, rather to ensure that the it is conducted with Integrity, fairness and within the legal framework as guided by the Local government act and the procurement professional guidelines.
The roaring Chairman also cited regulations 32(a), 34 (1), (e), 37, (2), (3), (4), (6), 45, 48, and others of the aforementioned Act, which he says were all defied by the technical staff.
Odongo expressed concern that such a scenario, if not corrected, it could lead to serious losses for Alebtong district.
“There is a likelihood of key regulations being violated as per the PPDA, secondly the technical evaluation committee was not approved by the law, I am highly concern over the information circulating and warned technical staff against compromise of the standards and quality of the procurement process,” he sais.
Adding: “The Local Government Act cap 243,section 3(1),(b),(c),(e),(2),(3),(4) empowers me to supervise service delivery and oversee local Government staff working in Alebtong District”.
Odongo therefore, ordered a fresh start of the technical evaluation process in line with the procurement process.
Attempts to reach the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Alebtong were futile as his known phone number went unanswered by press time.