THE WAY FORWARD FOR PUBLIC PROCUREMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA

There are a number of issues that could be considered to enhance procurement in the South African public sector. Therefore, it is critical that policy- and decision-makers consider developing skills and knowledge through specialised training programmes, involve stakeholders in the bidding process and employ centralisation and decentralisation for different categories of goods and services.

Developing skills and knowledge through teaching a two-model curriculum.

Institutions of higher learning and other service providers have a critical role to equip learners and practitioners with appropriate skills and knowledge. The capacity for qualified practitioners would only be available when educational institutions contribute to the challenge by way of developing a curriculum that meets the needs of the country. Such programmes should provide for an understanding of the knowledge of the South African public sector and its regulations.

The private sector-oriented, programme-specific skills require an understanding of the general business environment (enterprise management), while the public sector-oriented programme concentrates on the legislative environment (to sensitise learners to an integrated approach in the management of procurement within the highly regulated public sector environment). Both programmes require general procurement skills which should include, among others, the knowledge of and insight into the purchasing and supply  nvironment, sourcing strategies, purchasing and supply tasks, integrated supply management, globalisation, and technological advancement.

Stakeholders’ involvement

Public procurement malpractices could be limited through the employment of stakeholders such as civil society organisations to be part of the procurement process. The current status of the procurement system requires the creation of three bid committees, namely the bid specification committee, the evaluation committee and the adjudication committee. For the purpose of compliance and to minimise unethical and corrupt practices, stakeholders should be involved in the evaluation and adjudication process. This will ensure and support open governance. Open governance creates the conditions for effective collaboration between governments and citizens in a process that enhances legitimacy and accountability of public decision-making.

Stakeholder involvement will also encourage public servants to be more deliberate about decisions they make and will provide citizens as well as stakeholders with the opportunity to hold their leaders accountable. It will improve the efficiency of government institutions,

reduce fraud and waste of public finances, strengthen the management of natural resources and ensure better service delivery.

Strategic sourcing (centralisation versus decentralisation)

Another improvement strategy for public procurement is the use of centralised and decentralised procurement strategies for different categories of goods and services. There are many arguments for centralisation, specifically better control and expertise. However, the answer for poor public procurement practices should rather be sought in strategic sourcing. An analysis of public procurement requirements at all levels of government should be done and high risk–low cost items (known as bottleneck items) and high risk–high cost items (strategic items) should be purchased on a centralised basis with longer-term contracts and high levels of contract and supplier management. Leverage items that arelow risk but high cost can be purchased through one agency, for example a procurement consortium. The different public institutions then order from the contractor/supplier against a contract, typically through e-procurement, and distribution takes place on a decentralized basis. Here, contract management, and particularly feedback on supplier performance, is essential for this type of purchasing to be efficient. Non-critical, low risk–low cost items (also known as routine items) can be purchased on a decentralised basis by means of quotations from local suppliers (Simchi-Levy, Kaminksi & Simchi-Levy, 2009: 287).

Over and above the proposed recommendation, it is important that departments, municipalities and municipal entities engage with the employment of qualified procurement practitioners, training and employment of internship programmes, development of an effective monitoring and evaluation tool, creation of incentive programmes to motivate good performance, tools (information communication technology) and also good leadership (Ambe & Badenhorst-Weiss, 2011b).