eBusiness Weekly
Michael Tome
The Government should institute measures to curtail corruption in the country’s public procurement system, which they say is fraught with corruption that results in undeserving bidders ultimately landing contracts to supply the State and its arms.
Speakers at the Buy Zimbabwe public procurement conference held in Harare on Wednesday, bemoaned the lack of transparency in the public tender system, calling on the government to institute measures to curtail the vice in the public procurement process.
Tendering refers to the process where governments and key State institutions invite bids (with specifications) for large projects within a stipulated period.
However, public procurement is one of the government processes vulnerable to corrupt and irregular conduct designed to win public contracts for supply of goods or services given the high volume of transactions and the complex procurement process.
Participants at the Buy Zimbabwe public procurement conference held in Harare on Monday implored the relevant authorities to enhance transparency in the country’s public tender processes in order eliminate loopholes presently characterising the system.
They called for the simplification of the tendering process.
Some of the identified challenges encompass a cumbersome process that involves a lot of paperwork, which is exclusionary to small and medium enterprises.
Major irregularities associated with the tender system are found in the bid-rigging processes, which normally occur when two or more competitors agree not to compete genuinely with each other for tenders, allowing the other party to ‘win’ the tender unfairly.
Addressing participants at the conference on Wednesday, University of Zimbabwe lecturer, Dr Nyasha Kaseke, said Zimbabwe’s public procurement process was slow and that there was need to enhance efficiency in the tendering process.
He further blamed the Treasury for making late payments for supplies to Government and related institutions, which he reasoned was negatively affecting suppliers who are failing to recoup their investments due to the rising inflation disabling continuity in some businesses.
“At PRAZ there is always a delay in the procurement process, so we need to speed up the process in order to improve efficiency and clarity, we are therefore seeking the government to intervene and minimise delays on the process.
“Also there is no transparency in the local tendering process as one major person in a Ministry or institution has the power to influence and choose who wins a tender bid or not this is something happening in the country and we need to eradicate,” said Dr Kaseke
“The Ministry of Finance delays in the disbursement of funds is affecting arrangements as prices would have tripled or quadrupled, with money that was supposed to be disbursed in January being disbursed now, that money is almost buying nothing at the moment, so we need to improve on the way these tenders are conducted.”
Dr Kaseke raised the red flag saying that some of the contracts, particularly for road construction, were being awarded to less capable companies, which had seen some roads quickly returning to a bad state soon after being renovated.
He bemoaned the exchange rate disparities prevailing in the market saying it had potential to distort pricing of supplies in the process.
“There is lack of supervision on the part of the government to those it would have awarded tenders to, especially for roads, you find the road is good today and tomorrow not usable. When it comes to Ministry of Finance there is a problem we are also seeing that the suppliers are using the black market rate while the government is using the official rate, this also needs to be addressed,”
Speaking at the same event, President Emmerson Mnangagwa acknowledged the need for transparency in the procurement process to ensure a level playing field.
He called for a speedy adoption and use of e-procurement and e-payment systems to minimise face to face interface between bidders and those doing the tendering process as it could lead to conspiracies between the two parties.
“The volume of transactions and the financial interests at stake in the tender, compound corruption risks which are exacerbated by the complexity of the process, the close interaction between public officials and businesses, and the multitude of stakeholders.
“Wherever corruption occurs in the public procurement process, the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission, together with other law enforcement agencies, must decisively apply the law, without fear or favour.
Fair and just business practices must be ingrained in our procurement cycle, ICTs and administrative compliance measures must be deployed to eliminate interference, collusion, bid-rigging or fraud by procurement officials,” said President Mnangagwa
On the other hand, Buy Zimbabwe chairperson Munyaradzi Hwengwere said the government, as the biggest spender in the country should continue its local procurement drive to enhance the growth of local industry.
“Government came up with local content policy and said we should work together with the private sector, to say how can we better our procurement, today, we have mining growth target of US$12 billion agriculture US$8,2 billion, industry US$8 billion, these are sectors critical for substituting imports and this is where public procurement must be directed,” said Mr Hwengwere.
He said, presently the government has a commanding share of expenditure of about 68 percent, and the government should use the public purse to deepen value chains and promote public procurement.
He pleaded with the government to channel at least 20 percent of its budget towards local procurement to stimulate growth of local industries.
