(2) This Act shall commence on a day appointed by the Minister by statutory instrument.

2. (1) This Act shall apply to all public procurement and disposal activities and in particular shall apply to-
(a) all public finances-

(i) originating from the Consolidated Fund and related special finances expended through the capital or recurrent budgets, whatever form these may take;

(ii) that may be earmarked for external obligation purposes, except those resources that may be earmarked for payments of membership subscriptions and contributions; and

(iii) of a procuring and disposing entity;

(b) resources in the form of counterpart transfers or co-financing or any finances of a similar nature within the context of development co-operation agreements for the implementation of national programmes; and

(c) procurement or disposal of works, services, supplies or any combination however classified by-

(i) entities of Government within and outside Uganda; and

(ii) entities, not of Government, but which benefit from any type of specific public funds specified in paragraph (a) of this sub-section.

(2) Any dispute arising from the application of this Act shall be referred to the Authority for its decision following procedures to be prescribed by regulations made under this Act.

3. In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires-

"Accounting Officer" means the Accounting Officer of a procuring and disposing entity so appointed by the Secretary to the Treasury, and for the avoidance of doubt includes the Accounting Officer of a Local Government or a statutory body;
"Authority" means the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Authority established in section 5 of this Act;

"award" means a decision by a Tender Board established under the Local Governments Act, 1997 or Contracts Committee provided for in paragraph (b) of section 24, or any other subsidiary body of a procuring and disposing entity to which a Contracts Committee or a Tender Board may delegate powers of adjudication and award within a specified financial threshold, to determine the successful bidder;

"best practices" means the industry standards defined in this Act;

"bid" means an offer to provide or to acquire works, services or supplies or any combination thereof, and shall include pre-qualification where applicable;

"bidder" means a physical or artificial person intending to participate or participating in public procurement or disposal proceedings;

"bidding documents" means solicitation documents;

"Bid Notice" means any advertisement by which eligible providers are invited to submit written offers to provide or acquire works, services and supplies, or any combination of them in case of procurement and disposal respectively;

"contract" means an agreement between a procuring and disposing entity and a provider, resulting from the application of the appropriate and approved procurement or disposal procedures and proceedings as the case may be, concluded in pursuance of a bid award decision of a Contracts Committee or any other appropriate authority;
"Contracts Committee" is the committee provided for under Part III of this Act;

"Contractor" means a provider as defined in this Act;

"corrupt practice" includes the offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of anything of value to influence the action of a public official in the procurement or disposal process or in contract execution;

"currency point" has the meaning assigned to it in the First Schedule;

"Defence and National Security organs" means Uganda Peoples' Defence Forces, Uganda Police Force, Uganda Prisons Service, Intelligence Services and National Security Council;

"disposal" means the divestiture of public assets, including intellectual and proprietary rights and goodwill, and any other rights of a procuring and disposing entity by any means, including sale, rental, lease, franchise, auction, or any combination however classified other than those regulated by the Public Enterprise Reform and Divestiture Statute, 1993;

"disposal process" means the successive stages in the disposal cycle, including planning, choice of procedure, measures to solicit offers from bidders, examination and evaluation of those offers and award of contract;

"emergency" means circumstances which are urgent, unforeseeable and not caused by dilatory conduct;

"foreign provider" means a provider whose business is not registered in Uganda;
"fraudulent practice" includes a misrepresentation of facts in order to influence a procurement or disposal process or the execution of a contract to the detriment of the procuring or disposing entity, and includes collusive practices among bidders prior to or after bid submission designed to establish bid prices at artificial non-competitive levels and to deprive the procuring and disposing entity of the benefits of free and open competition;

"guidelines" means directives issued by the Authority under section 97 of this Act;

"industry standards" means those standards defined and codified by internationally recognized providers' associations and professional bodies in the respective fields and includes best practices;

"listed provider" means a provider registered by the Authority in accordance with this Act;

"Minister" means the Minister responsible for Finance;

"national provider" means a provider registered in Uganda and wholly owned and controlled by Ugandans;

"pre-qualification" means a screening process designed to ensure that invitations to bid are confined to capable providers;

"procurement" means acquisition by purchase, rental, lease, hire purchase, licence, tenancy, franchise, or any other contractual means, of any type of works, services or supplies or any combination;

"Procurement and Disposal Unit" means a division in each procuring and disposing entity responsible for the execution of the procurement and disposal function;

"procurement process" means the successive stages in the procurement cycle including planning, choice of procedure, measures to solicit offers from bidders, examination and evaluation of those offers, award of contract, and contract management;
"procuring and disposing entity" means a statutory body, department of the central government, local government and any other body or unit established and mandated by government to carry out public functions;

"provider" means a natural person or an incorporated body including a consultant, contractor or supplier licensed by a competent authority to undertake business activities;

"public funds" means monetary resources appropriated to procuring and disposing entities through budgetary processes, including the Consolidated Fund, grants and credits put at the disposal of the procuring and disposing entities by foreign donors; and revenues generated by the procuring and disposing entities;

"resident provider" means a provider registered in Uganda who is not a national provider;

"services" means any object of procurement or disposal other than works and supplies, and includes professional, non professional and commercial types of services as well as supplies and works which are incidental to, but not exceeding the value of those services;

"specifications" means the description of an object of procurement or disposal in accordance with national and international standards adopted and approved by the Authority, after consultation with the National Bureau of Standards, or other appropriate trade associations and professions, the use of which shall be mandatory in all bidding documents;
"solicitation documents" means bidding documents or any other documents inviting bidders to participate in procurement or disposal proceedings; and includes documents inviting potential bidders to pre-qualify, and standard bidding documents;

"supplies" means goods, raw materials, products, equipment or objects of any kind and description in solid, liquid or gaseous form, or in the form of electricity, or intellectual and proprietary rights as well as works or services incidental to the provision of those supplies where the value of the works or services does not exceed the value of the supplies;

"tender" means "bid";

"User Department" means any department, division, branch or section of the procuring and disposing entity, including any project unit working under the authority of the procuring and disposing entity, which initiates procurement and disposal requirements and is the user of the requirements; and

"works" means any work associated with the construction, reconstruction, demolition, repair, or renovation of a building or structure, on the surface or underground, on and underwater, and includes the preparation, excavation, erection, assembly, installation, testing and commissioning of any plant, equipment or materials, decoration and finishing, turnkey projects, build own and operate projects, build operate and transfer projects or any arrangement of this nature, or any other form of private and public partnerships or joint development activities, all or any of which may include management, maintenance, testing, commissioning and training; as well as supplies or services incidental to those works where the value of the incidental supplies or services does not exceed the value of the works.

4. (1) Where this Act conflicts with an obligation of the Republic of Uganda arising out of an agreement with one or more states, or with an international organization, the provisions of the agreement shall prevail over this Act.

(2) Where an agreement referred to in this section contains a preference or preferences in favour of national and resident providers, a procuring and disposing entity shall ensure that the applicable preference or preferences are clearly stated in the bidding documents.