Tabora Regional Commissioner, Amb. Dr. Batilda Buriani has applauded the PPRA campaign on the preference scheme provided by the public procurement law and said the targeted groups were now well placed to take part effectively in the region’s many public procurement tenders, TPJ can reveal.

This came to light recently when the RC spoke during a discussion on Clouds TV program Regional Breakfast whereby a team from the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) were sensitising the residents on opportunities provided by the procurement law to the groups, namely youth, the elderly, women and people with disabilities.

Amb. Buriani expressed delight and said most residents would welcome the message of the campaign as, while her office had already organized hundreds of groups for economic empowerment under the ‘Mzinga wa Mama Samia’ banner, they had not been aware of the opportunities presented by the said scheme spelt out in the procurement law.

“Now that we have become aware that 30 percent of every entity’s procurement budget has been set aside for special groups, my office will join PPRA to sensitize people on the requirements so that they benefit from many of the region’s procurement opportunities,” she said and went on to cite construction projects at the offices of the district commissioner and at the regional administrative secretary.

Amb. Buriani noted that for the scheme to bear fruit, however, she would make follow-up on procuring entities in the region, to make sure that they indeed set aside the 30 percent of their annual procurement budget for special groups.

Furthermore, Amb. Buriani commended PPRA for its decision to use Fiesta Festival by Clouds Media Group for the campaign given the fact the forum attracts the youth’s attention thereby making it the best channel for transmitting youth agenda.

On another development in the campaign, the PPRA team visited Tanzania Rural and Urban Roads Agency (Tarura), where it heard from the entity’s Acting Tabora Regional Manager, Mr. Bernard Amani, that in this financial year, the entity has already awarded to special groups, contracts amounting to 327,000,000 Shillings and that it would welcome more participation of special groups in its tenders.

“We have provided contracts to two groups, namely the elderly and women, but not other groups as they are not in the PPRA list of special groups,” he said.

The Authority is conducting a campaign, in collaborating with Clouds Media Group, to sensitize special groups, especially the youth, to seize the opportunities of the preference scheme for economic empowerment. Seven regions are targeted in the three-month campaign, namely Dodoma, Rukwa, Tabora, Mwanza, Arusha, Dodoma, Mtwara and Dar es Salaam.