Finance Minister, Alexander Chikwanda has called for an effective public procurement system which is transparent in order to enhance economic growth and development.
Mr Chikwanda said yesterday when he launched the Standard Bidding Documents in Lusaka that public procurement was a critical component in the management of public resources.
Standard bidding documents, which were part of the on-going reforms in the public sector, were aimed at achieving optimum degree of order in the procurement process as well as reduce bureaucracy and tender processing time.
“It follows that an inefficient and bad procurement system can be a major impediment to growth and development especially that the acquisition of works, goods and services by the public sector have to go through such a system,” he said.
The minister who is chairperson of the Zambia Public Procurement Authority (ZPPA) said it was important that a modern public sector was built on a sound procurement system that was transparent, efficient and corrupt-zero rated.
“More importantly, the procurement system must be an important catalyst in achieving value for money. Hence the need for procurement reforms has become an immediate necessity,” he said.
Mr Chikwanda said the Government had been pushing for the implementation of the decentralisation policy since taking over last year in order to ensure that every citizen accessed public service regardless of the location.
He noted that the enactment of the Public Procurement Act and its regulations now provided a good platform for a decentralised procurement process.
The role of the ZPPA would from January 1, 2013 change as the institution would now assume an oversight and a regulatory role while the procurement function would be decentralised and devolved to procurement entities.
ZPPA recently made an upward revision of thresholds which marked another important chapter in the procurement reforms.
Mr Chikwanda noted that the newly launched measure would rationalize the procurement process and enhance efficiency and effectiveness as well as provide a basis for conducting fair, transparent and credible tender processes.
He applauded the commitment and continued support from cooperating partners as well as the contribution from civil society organisations.
Just like the transparency in Apollo’s renovation of state house.
Oh sorry, that was a corrupt deal
@1. Sata claims that the renovation of state house was transparent because he “didn’t even know where the cement for the renovations was sourced from”. Chikwanda paid himself $4m in the first week of been Finance Minister………..the man has no morals !
@2, I concur with you 100%, the problem is that people like Chikwanda have short memories or merely think they can fool Zambians all the time. This chap has failed to explain and defend himself on the revelation of the state house renovation corrupt deal. This stinks.
Seleni tubombeko ba imwe!
MOST WELCOME DEVELOPMENT: The current Zambian public procurement system does not have :
1. An simple explanation of the full tender evaluation criteria
2. A way of allocating points to advance the promotion of indegenous Zambian business over those that are not. 3. None of the CEEC principles as a tender evaluation criteria 4. No suggestion on how the service provider should empower local communities 5. No prescription on how many jobs should be created, especially in the area of the project/ activity to be performed. And these are very serious flaws in the system, which in many ways amount to how Zambia keeps retrogressing in the area of developing its own entrepreneures and fighting poverty!! Like Obama insists; it’s the local entrepreneures that creat employment!!!
Iyee chizungu chapena ” A simple….”
IWE CHI WANU NGWEE YOU FAILED ENGLISH AT GRADE 12 I REMEMBER U GOT 9 THAT IS WHY U WENT IN THE DIASPORA
MMMM! Transparency because Appolo was already given a tender without transparency? How about printing of the rebased kwacha. who is eating big time?
Very stupid man.
Procurement officers, be it in government, parastatal companies and private companies; are all thieves. Their assets outweigh their income by far. Kapoko syndome!