Ministry of Finance and Treasury
PRESS STATEMENT

The Ministry of Finance and Treasury (MOFT) through the Treasury Division Procurement Unit (TPU) and the Central Tender Board (CTB) were established to provide a regulatory, monitoring and oversight service on public procurement and asset disposal matters in a transparent, accountable, efficient and effective manner in order to realise value for money for Solomon Island’s public funds.

In view of its core functions and responsibilities, MOFT has made significant progress in the following areas:

1. In 2022, the Procurement Regulations 2021 was brought into effect together with the SIG Procurement Manual 2022. This enabled the TPU to oblige Ministries and Departments to adhere to the rules and guidelines in undertaking their procurement activities.
2. This enabled MOFT to reinforce procurement rules and guidelines that had been relaxed in early 2020-mid 2022 to allow Ministries to quickly deliver their Covid-19 responses during the pandemic
3. Consequentially, CTB was able to make enforceable decisions on tender awards and processes, in line with the policy intents of the PFM Act 2013. In this regard in 2022, CTB received a total of 249 submissions from ministries comprising bid waiver requests, contract variation requests and requests for tender awards. CTB approved a total of 193 submissions. Twenty-six (26) submissions were rejected for being non- compliant with SIG Procurement Guidelines; fourteen (14) submissions were referred back to ministries for more information to allow informed CTB deliberations and a total of sixteen (16) submissions were referred back to ministries for inclusion in 2023 budget because these were submitted towards the end of the financial year and could not have been accommodated for payment under the 2022 budget. MOFT is currently seeking additional resourcing of staff and technical assistance to boost the capacity of TPU in

With the substantial increase in the value and volume of SIG’s procurement in recent years, it is imperative that public funds are expended in the proper manner and gets value for money public goods and services for the people of Solomon Islands. This is all the more important with the hosting of the Pacific Games in 2023 and the need to ensure that the provision of goods and services, and the activities undertaken are of good standard and quality.

Retrospective approvals for award of contracts, bid waivers and variations to contracts, regardless of the urgency or circumstances around the procurement are no longer being accepted by MOFT. Similarly, payments will not be approved for goods, works or services procured without prior approval from procurement authorities as designated under both Procurement Regulations 2021 and the SIG Procurement Manual 2022.

Delivery of goods and services (under simple procurement rules) must be properly certified before payments can be processed in MOFT, and this is where Ministries have been strongly urged to use Local Purchase Orders (LPOs) as the means of securing payment. On the other hand, Advance Payments are only limited to 20% for works procurements, but these are generally discouraged as it leads to abuse and uncertainties of the actual delivery of goods and services and places it low down the ranking of priority payments.

Advance Payments are discouraged as it leads to abuse and uncertainties of the actual delivery of specified goods and services.

Public procurement does not take place in a societal vacuum. The need for win-win partnerships with suppliers/vendors/contractors and members of the business community in general is never greater. It is therefore, against this backdrop that the business community is advised to ensure that fully signed contracts and addenda are in place before goods, works or services are provided to ministries. The business community is thus reminded to note the following:

• Goods, works and services delivered to ministries with values below SBD$100,000 must be supported by a local purchase order signed by Assistant Accountant General, Procurement and Payments at MOFT before delivery;
• Goods, works and services delivered to ministries with values between SBD$100,000 and SBD $500,000 must be supported with a standard SIG contract countersigned by the Accountable Officer from the procuring ministry and the Accountant General before delivery; and
• Goods, works and services delivered to ministries with values above SBD$500,000 must be supported with a standard SIG contract countersigned by the Accountable Officer from the procuring ministry and the Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Finance and Treasury before

MOFT will not take any responsibility for any goods, works and services delivered to ministries in the absence of fully signed contracts of addenda. These rules and guidelines have been re- clarified with ministries vide Finance Circular 01/2023: 2023 Budget Execution Strategy.

MOFT sincerely acknowledges the support and collaboration from our key stakeholders in the donor, business community, ministries and the general public in this very important endeavour.

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