as ACC Act bites…… MP’s cry for salary increase

The Chief Executive Officer of the National Public Procurement Office, Dr Alfred Kandeh has attributed the recent out cry of Parliamentarians for salary increase to the stance of the ACC Act 2008, which forbade MPs from doubling as Contractors.
Speaking to Journalists recently, after the Commonwealth Seminar on Public Procurement, Dr. Kandeh recalled that during the previous Parliament since some of the MP’s doubled as Contractors, they never stood their grounds on an increment in salary; as they realized a lot from being Contractors.
“In the past MP’s hardly advocate for salary increment because they were better off as compared to now, when the ACC Act 2008 has tightened everything by forbidding MP’s from undertaken  contracts” he said.
It has been said that during the previous era some MP’s were doubling as Contractors thereby making  huge money; but not all MP’s delivered the goods as some either converted the funds or left the contract halfway.
Dr. Kandeh averred that procurement is the driving force behind national development and therefore required everyone’s effort.
He said bad procurement practices in the past political system is responsible for some of the poor infrastructural development in the Country; and therefore requested everyone including Journalist to come onboard to monitor procurement on the ground.
This, he said, would go a long way in identifying bad procurement with the view of reporting any form of malpractices to the appropriate authorities.
He said procurement now considers human and child rights; adding that all Commonwealth public procurement countries would boycott goods manufactured by companies which utilizes child labour.
He explained that the recent outcome of the Commonwealth procurement seminar resolved to incorporate electronic or paperless procurement system and sustainable procurement as one of the best practices around the world.
On the issue of capacity building, Dr. Kandeh noted that our engineers have failed to recruit new graduates as apprentices to learn on the job
By Solomon Rogers