The rot in public procurement

The rot in public procurement
By Editor
Sat 27 Mar. 2010, 04:00 CAT

PUBLIC procurement is one of the main areas open to abuse and corruption in the country.

This type of corruption and abuse of resources continues to cost the country huge sums of money, which could be ploughed into important sectors such as health and education. It is very clear that people in the public service are not ready to follow procedure and have resorted to shortcuts when it comes to procurement of goods and services. The tender procedures are very clear but in most cases these procedures are ignored with impunity. In other instances, guidelines are followed just for formality because the government already know the company they will award a particular contract.

The concern raised by Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairperson Emmanuel Haachipuka that the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives has been engaging two companies, Nyiombo and Omnia, to supply fertiliser to the government for the Farmer Input Support Programme for the last seven years requires serious reflection and deep meditation. We say this because this is another example of what form our country’s procurement process has taken. We are not in any way suggesting that these two companies are not qualified to supply fertiliser to the government for whatever purposes. We just think that seven years is a long time and it is difficult to believe that there have been no other players with the capacity to offer the same services, even at a lower cost.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives is not an isolated case on this score because several other ministries such as energy, works and supply, education and communications and transport are just as guilty when it comes to engaging suppliers. It is more worrying that the government has actually turned to single sourcing as its preferred mode of procurement in most of these ministries. Deals are being sealed for big projects involving the supply of various goods, services, the construction of infrastructure and many other key works without following proper procedure.

It is not too long ago that the Ministry of Communications and Transport single-sourced RP Capital Partners of Cayman Islands to value Zamtel assets before partial privatisation. Recently, the energy ministry single-sourced a Chinese company to drill boreholes at a disputed cost of US $50 million. At what cost is each borehole going to be sunk?

The country has also faced fuel shortages before as a result of corruption in the procurement process. Even Rupiah Banda on November 11, 2009 was quoted as having said, “...there are a lot of vested interests in the procurement of fuel. Of course there are vested interests and they get upset that we may be interfering with what they have been doing all along.” But Rupiah did not reveal the names of the people behind the vested interests. Rupiah knows these people with vested interests that he talked about.

There is need for the people involved in public procurement in our country’s public service to relook at the manner in which they are doing things. They are using public funds, which are generated from taxes paid by a few of our people that are currently in formal employment. This money can sort out a lot of problems but it ends up in the pockets of a few unscrupulous individuals as kickbacks for facilitating these deals. This is unacceptable and it should not be allowed to continue.

We need to ensure that public service workers adhere to the guidelines set by the Zambia Public Procurement Authority (ZPPA) when contracting suppliers of goods and services. ZPPA cannot just be there to rubberstamp deals that are sealed at midnight by the powerful without their involvement. ZPPA cannot just be there to issue statements at press briefings, endorsing certain transactions even when the people in that institution know deep down in their hearts that they have nothing to do with a particular contract. We have seen this happen and it should not be tolerated.

The corruption in procurement is also disadvantaging other companies, which have the capacity to supply goods and services to the government. We have cases where projects that can be handled by small local companies are given to foreigners at a huge cost while in other cases, big contracts are given to companies or friends of the powerful whose briefcase companies’ capacity to deliver is questionable. You cannot have a country where the preoccupation of those running its institutions is to amass wealth, expect kickbacks, cuts and favours in every transaction. It is such corruption that saw this country get genetically modified organism (GMO) maize supplied to the Food Reserve Agency and yet the country does not accept GMO maize. It is such corruption that has led to unnecessary fuel shortages, causing problems in the country’s economic sector.

There is need for those entrusted with the responsibility of discharging public service to be serious and arrest this problem, which seems to be endemic in our country. We will not make any development progress as a country if we do not spend our country’s resources prudently. If the insatiable appetite to seal questionable deals at midnight in exchange for kickbacks, cuts and favours is not addressed, we will continue to lag behind as a country and poverty will continue to ravage our people. No matter how much we publicise the national anti-corruption policy and the implementation plan, corruption will reign if nothing is done to stop it in the various key areas such as procurement. We will continue to talk about unemployment, disease, floods, illiteracy, poor infrastructure, poor healthcare and education services for years to come if Rupiah and his friends do not stop the rot that is going on in procurement. There is clearly a problem and it needs to be addressed.

We need to understand that corruption in procurement impedes economic development, affects the efficiency of public spending, creates waste and affects the quality of service provided and ultimately the quality of life. We cannot continue to take the approach of the ‘the best briber takes the deal’ because this tendency has in some cases led to a situation where policy processes are determined by bribing firms.

We know that contracting is the main way in which any government operates and spends public money. We know that these contracts are the vehicles for implementing public policy but these vehicles should not be used to amass wealth at the expense of poor Zambians. The country’s efficiency in delivering services and ensuring development to the people will largely depend on how much we control corruption in procurement and it is possible to do this. Our continued talk about development and fighting corruption will continue for years if no practical steps are taken to fight the abuse of public resources in the government. We will continue reversing the gains that the country has recorded if we do not stop the rhetoric and act on this cancerous vice, this abuse of public funds. Like someone once said, in all our efforts to develop the country, we will be “trying to take off at the end of history’s runway” if corruption and abuse of resources is not curbed.