The People of Eastern Uganda shall no longer move to Kampala to receive services from the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Authority (PPDA). It sounds less exciting, perhaps, but yes, there are a number of people that will find some relief from the move.
As a government body, PPDA serves mostly business entities that want to do business with government. It also advises government agencies that want to dispose of assets.
So people have to obtain approvals that their companies have the required competence and record to be able to do business with government, and until now, this had proved costly especially for upcountry businesses.
Not anymore at least for those that operate in eastern Uganda, it seems, after the agency opened their offices in Mbale district.
Prof. Simon Wanyama, the Chairman of the PPDA Board said they decided to open an offices in the eastern region because it has the biggest number of entities. “Eastern region has the biggest number of entities, 49 better than western and northern,” Wanyama said.
In an interview with The Sunrise, Benson Turamye, the Acting Executive Director said that the there was a need for their services to be extended near to the public. “The regional office will do everything that we are doing at the Head Office except handling administrative issues,” he added: “They shall provide advice to procuring and disposing entities to the region, they will monitor the performance of PDEs, registration of providers like suppliers who have been going to Kampala and caring out training generally capacity building”. He noted.
This is the third office to be opened by PPDA following the one that was opened in northern Uganda (Gulu district) in 2015 and Western region in Mbarara district in 2016.
The Eastern region office will control 37 districts stretching through Teso and some parts of Busoga.
The Resident District Commissioner of Mbale Suleiman Ogajo Balaza, who graced the ceremony thanked PPDA for choosing Mbale as the Eastern region office.
“The eastern region office completes the presence of the authority in the eastern region of Uganda and serves a vital role of providing services to the residents,” he noted.
