The newly formed National Procurement Commission met for the first time to review contracts and discuss procurement-related matters, as announced by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister in Economic Affairs.
The National Procurement Commission was founded on Tuesday, December 13 on the explicit decree of Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, the supreme leader of the de facto administration of Afghanistan.
According to the decree, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Deputy Prime Minister in Economic Affairs is appointed to also chair the commission, which is responsible for the coordination of procurement operations.
The first meeting of the commission, which also took place on the same date as the issuance of the establishment decree, reviewed 13 contracts, according to the announcement of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.
According to a release from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, 13 contracts were reviewed at the commission’s first meeting, which also happened to be the same day the establishment decree was issued.
The contracts presented by the Kabul Municipality, the Ministries of Finance and Public Health, as well as the state energy company Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat (DABS), were approved at the commission’s first meeting; the approval of the remaining contracts was either delayed or rejected.
This establishment of the commission comes as the former Afghanistan government also had the National Procurement Authority (NPA), based on a decree of the then-president Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, as part of the Administrative Office of the President (AOP).
The NPA was abolished by the rolling administration in Afghanistan, but it has been resurrected after over 16 months.
