Supplies to federal institutions delayed over price dispute

The Public Procurement and Property Disposal Service (PPPDS) announced that among the 49 private companies who agreed to supply detergent, toilet paper, tyres, toners, computers and stationary materials for federal institutions and universities have failed to live up to their end of the bargain.
At a meeting held on March7, at the Ministry of Finance and Economy Cooperation (MoFEC),companies who supply the product said that the recent dollar appreciation hampered their ability to supply the products at their old prices.
Tesfaye Birhanu PPPDS, Procurement Administration Vice head said, “two years ago the companies agreed to supply the materials to the government institutions for a three year period and now they are asking us for more money. We have sent their request to MoFEC but they want the materials sent at the original price.”
He added that low quality products also pose a problem.
“Like those who mix Teff flour with sawdust, some suppliers provided faulty products and we need to expose this practice,” he said.
Tesfaye also feels more local products should be procured.
“Toilet paper, soap, other little things are still imported and sold to government entities and many of the local factories don’t have the capacity to produce and supply the materials, we need to change our system and stop working like this and scale up local companies so they can supply these items to universities and other government institutions.”
In other news PPPDS announced that Belay Belayab Motors Plc won the tender to supply 400 vehicles to government official sat 352 million birr.
In this fiscal year PPPDS plan to procure 7.4 billion birr worth of different materials for universities.