Role of anti-corruption commission

07 Jan, 2022 - 00:01 0 Views
Role of  anti-corruption commission Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission, is a move viewed by the supply chain management fraternity as a leap in the right direction towards fighting and combating corruption in the supply chain function of the economy. 

eBusiness Weekly

Marshal Mangwiro

Public procurement has been a loophole for most corrupt and unscrupulous activities in this nation. Procurement, according to many authors, is believed to be a legally mandated organisational function responsible for committing organisational funds. 

However, public procurement has to be managed as it lies on the fulcrum of Government spending. A sound public procurement policy has to be formulated and embraced to circumvent and encourage due diligence in execution. 

Public procurement, is that function that is responsible for the acquisition of all resources in public organisations. A sound procurement function work taking into consideration the five rights of procurement so as to create more value for the economy as a whole. 

Effective and efficient product and service delivery is believed to be on the helm of customer satisfaction. In Zimbabwe, public procurement is governed by the public procurement and disposal of public assets bill. 

It regulates and controls how public procurement is to be done. During the old era, we relied on State Procurement Board which acts as the data tank for everything that happens within public spending. As business processes emerged from being production oriented to customer orientated, these began to be a competitive strategy on the market. 

Some organisations became customer centric and others relied on their old culture of believing customers will come for the product.

As supply chain efficiencies impacted on our day to day, better living standards, sustainability, value creation and delivery of quality services were the main objectives. 

As the economy deteriorates, those on the top echelon took advantage every time they got a chance to abuse their office powers over these resources enough to sustain everyone and converted them to personal use. 

A lot of individuals in power were abusing power of their offices into canning public funds, turning them into their benefit. This has been the norm in our public procurement systems since long back. In every tender floated, there was a high probability of fraudulent activity going on behind. In 2011, a tender for the supply and delivery of malaria rapid test kits was withdrawn. 

Participating bidders were refunded their tender fees because the tender had been corruptly flouted. In 2018, a cholera outbreak in Glenview areas of Harare left disgruntlement within the procurement profession as some practitioners were caught trying to benefit from this transition which was scheduled to benefit the needy. Gloves which cost $3, but were changed to $65, this shows the existence of a cartel in some who hold public offices.

Hence, public procurement lies on the epicentre of national spending and has to be managed well to have a more controllable national spending. The President in his fight against corruption in Zimbabwe has established a Board, The Zimbabwe Anti Corruption Commission. 

In his mantra of corruption and litter are the same, he chose to appoint and establish an eight member conclusive boards with individuals who understand all facets of economic production. 

Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission, is a move viewed by the supply chain management fraternity as a leap in the right direction towards fighting and combating corruption in the supply chain function of the economy. 

The fight against corruption is largely viewed as a catalyst for rapid economic growth as the nation is galloping towards an upper middle-class economy by 2030. The country adopted a new Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Asset Act (Chapter 22:23) bankrolled by the World Bank and established the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe, thus paving way for combating vice within public procurement. 

The new act came into being after abolishing State Procurement Board, which had its own weaknesses. Local associations such as the Supply Chain Association of Zimbabwe (SCAZ) and Zimbabwe Institute of Procurement and Supply (ZIPS), are purposed to groom practitioners and transform them into professionals, thus raising the bar on the application of supply chain management practices and its elements both in private and public sectors. This anchors growth across the nation.

In 2011, former Minister of Finance and Economic Development Tendai Biti, once issued a statement in support of the system requiring training and development in public procurement. Budgets burst due to untrained workforce in these critical departments of the government. 

All this was done to curb and reduce corruption to zero rates so as to have a clean economy. As strategic supply chain systems emerged on the global market, effective competent strategies had to be embraced so as to have better supply chain systems in our economy. Biti during his tenure as Minister of Finance and Economic Development, pointed out the proper training and development of procurement practitioners as an asset to our economic recovery. 

He also supported the creation of procurement and Supply Council of Zimbabwe (PSCZ) which was supposed to be held responsible for licensing practitioners in Zimbabwe. 

Supply chain association of Zimbabwe (SCAZ), Zimbabwe Institute of Procurement and Supply (ZIPS) were established with the same ideology, but on a much proactive manner. As business practices changed on a day to day this gave supply chain practitioners a much wide area of jurisdiction. 

Most webinars are hosted and they are encouraging professionalism to be practiced across the nation. All the actions done by the President and the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission is to control and regulate the level of impact. To date, ZACC have managed to apprehend some of the saboteurs and perpetrators to economic recovery. 

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