PPDA bemoans poor procurement procedures
The Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Authority (PPDA) has said procurement services in government ministries and departments have been negatively affected because the procurement procedures are being handled by under qualified personnel.
Director General of PPDA, Dr Edington Chilapondwa, disclosed this on Wednesday when he appeared before the Parliamentary Committee on Business Affairs.
Chilapondwa said there was need to revisit procurement procedures followed by government ministries and departments especially that such tasks should be handled by well qualified officers. He disclosed that the PPDA rejects many procurement proposals that are poorly crafted.
“We are talking about level of knowledge. We think that some big government institutions with big budgets cannot have their procurement services headed by a procurement assistant or procurement officer. They must recruit qualified people as procurement managers or procurement directors,” explained Chilapondwa.
Director of Centre for Social Accountability and Transparency, Willie Kammbwandira, observed that sometimes authorities deliberately recruit under qualified people so as to abuse the system.
“Sometimes under qualified people are deliberately recruited so that some top officials can abuse the system for their own personal benefits. This is done to make sure that such under qualified officers do not question some decisions made by top officials,” he said.
Reports indicate that 70% of the country’s annual budget goes into procurement services by government.
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