Maravi

Poor procurement systems worry ACEZ

Poor procurement systems worry ACEZ
By Maluba Jere and Mwala Kalaluka
Thursday August 21, 2008 [04:00]

ASSOCIATION of Consulting Engineers in Zambia (ACEZ) chairman Henry Musonda has said the absence of an efficient and effective procurement system has serious negative effects on good governance.

Submitting to the Parliamentary Committee on Public Accounts on the proposed Public Procurement Bill No 12 of 2008, Musonda said the current system failed to generate desired results to ensure value for money for public contracts and transparency and accountability if offering and selecting public tenders.

Musonda said the efficiency of the procurement system was an important determinant, which affected the country’s economic growth.

He observed that in Zambia, the annual public investment run into trillions of kwacha and that this placed a huge volume of procurement activities on the public sector.

“Hence establishing an efficient and effective procurement system is central to achieve good governance of the country and is an integral component of public reforms,” he said.

Musonda explained that the prime objective of the procurement system was to facilitate economic development activities in the country and that the challenge was how to financially obtain the most advantageous and qualitatively the best services and supplies through an expeditious process without sacrificing the quality, integrity and transparency.

He cited extensive delays in the awarding of contracts as the major weakness in the procurement system in Zambia.

“This has been exacerbated by poor monitoring, non availability of standard contract documents and specifications, weak administration resulting in huge cost and time over-run in many development projects,” Musonda said.

“Procurements related problems have caused long implementation delays in critical economic development projects of the country and thereby obstructing the desired economic benefits to the people of Zambia.”

He also said the proposed bill would ensure the government procurement system was made more efficient and simplified in order to promote development needs of the country.

Musonda said currently, public sector officers, contractors and suppliers faced difficulties with tender procedures as they had to comply with different rules and procedures adding that the proposed bill should revise the current guidelines, harmonising it with the requirements of the international funding agencies.

Musonda added that there was need to defer the bill for a while because it needed to be reviewed so that additions and corrections could be made to it.

Labels: ACEZ, HENRY MUSONDA, PAC, PROCUREMENT SYSTEMS

posted by MrK @ 5:44 AM