Supply Chain perspective September 2018 Zimbabwe

Procurement, it 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. It is that function that is responsible for the acquisition of all resources in the organisation. A sound procurement function work taking into consideration the five rights of procurement so as to create value. These rights are the right price, right place, right quality, right quantity and right time. 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 organisation became customer centric and some 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 their personal benefits.

In every tender floated, there was a fraudulent activity going on behind. In 2011 a tender for the supply and delivery of malaria rapid test kits was withdrawn with participating bidders being refunded their tender fees because it had been corruptly flouted. Public procurement lies on the epicentre of national spending and has to be managed well to have a more controllable nation. High levels of unemployment and high cost of living in Zimbabwe led to an outbreak of Cholera in Glenview area in Harare. A well-wisher, Econet wireless chose to assist our local Board of Harare with $10 million to assist with drug acquisitions and upgrade the standards of living in that area. A cholera outbreak in Glenview areas of Harare left a disgruntlement within the procurement profession. Some practitioners were caught trying to benefit from this transition which was scheduled to benefit the needy. A selfless heart is needed in order to revive and upgrade our standards of living. Due to some pathetic practitioners, instead of helping the need they just thought of extorting money from the donor. This has been a norm in this country as you see some aid falling back due to lack of accountability and responsibility. Due diligence has to be practices by every practitioner in this economy. Due to limited release and unavailability of information pertaining to these invoices and purchase orders, only managed to find out about the disposable glove which was posted on Mr Masiiwa’s blog. Glove which cost $3 but was changed to $65, this shows the existence of a cartel in those who execute public procurement in this local board. Revocation of these individual’s practising licenses is idea as it is one of the first steps in mitigating corruption and moving forward in developing our nation. However these practitioners maybe held responsible but questioning need to be directed to the senior guys of the City council i.e. Finance Director, Chamber Secretary and Town Clerk. These guys are the ones that approve and finalises a purchase of these types. If it was declared petty cash transaction maybe, but how is such an acquisition declared petty cash? We all need to relook into this story in a much wider scale.

In 2011, former Finance Minister of Finance and Economic Development Tendai Biti 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. 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. In May 2017, newer regulations to the public procurement and disposal of asset bill chapter 22:23 were drawn. The new act led to the abolishment of State Procurement Board which was dully considered a failure in implementing and executing public procurement reforms. Tendai Biti during his tenure as Minister of Finance and Economic Development, he 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 was 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.