By: Chernor Sadu Barrie
When the late President of Tanzania, Mr. John Pombe Magufuli was asked how was he able to fulfill most of his promises to the people of his country and mitigated corruption immensely during his first term in office, he responded that he was able to fulfill most of his government’s promises to Tanzanians because he ensured that all the procurement processes of his policies were swiftly done and implemented promptly.

In order for His Excellency President Julius Maada Bio to succeed in his second term policies effectively and efficiently, Mr. Fodie J. Konneh, who is at the helm of the National Public Procurement Authority (NPPA), has been accelerating the evaluation of the procurement activities of the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the Government of Sierra Leone (GoSL). Under his dynamic leadership, the procurement activities of MDAs would hardly take more than one week at the NPPA for review and concurrence and this has greatly helped MDAs to plan and implement their procurement activities on time and to achieve the desired results.

In order to transform the public procurement process from paper-based system to a cutting-edge platform, mitigate the corrupt practices in public procurement effectively and efficiently, produce accurate data that can be used by the GoSL and development partners for the development of policies that can positively transform the lives of the ordinary citizens of Sierra Leone, increase transparency, accessibility and fairness in the public procurement sector, the NPPA under the leadership of Mr. Fodie J Konneh, the Ministry of Finance (MoF), World Bank and other development partners came together on the 7th December, 2023 for the historic launch of the Electronic Government Procurement (e-GP) tendering document at the conference hall of Treasury Building that houses the Ministry of Finance.

The opening of the e-GP bids evaluation process is currently ongoing.
In an interview with Mr. Konneh in relation to the e-GP project, the CEO disclosed that when the e-GP project has been fully implemented, it would guarantee the complete success of His Excellency President Julius Maada Bio’s “Big Five Game Changers” Agenda and also be an important tool for the success of future governments and development partners’ policies in Sierra Leone.