Be prudent, add value, procurement pros urged

PURCHASING and supply professionals should ensure value addition and prudence in all public procurement and stores management to realise the aspirations of the 2019 national budget, the Zambia Institute of Purchasing and Supply (ZIPS) has advised. ZIPS president, Chibwe Mwelwa said President Edgar Lungu in June this year announced the introduction of austerity measures in the management of public funds and that the Presidential directive could only come to fruition if the role of procurement and supply was duly recognised in both public and private organisations. Mr Mwelwa said that Government was looking to purchasing and supply professionals to do their best in implementing austerity measures to reduce Zambia’s debt distress from high to moderate in the medium term. He said at a workshop in Lusaka that procurement and stores functions were the mainstay of any organisation or country for the realization of value for money in spending agencies of both public and private organizations. Mr Mwelwa appealed to all procurement and stores professionals in Zambia to conduct all the procurements and stores functions in a transparent, efficient, economic and corrupt free environment. He said this would guarantee value for money in the procurement process and enthuse the positive realisation of the aspirations of the US$ 8 billion budget for 2019. He urged the purchasing and supply professionals to carry out the austerity measures in all public procurement activities and ensure value addition. “Facts on the ground tell us that 10-15% of Zambia’s GDP is directly related to public procurement and that 70% of the cost of production of many manufacturing industries is directly related to the procurement and stores function. “That most economic fundamentals, like rate of employment, exchange rates, and the generation of aggregate demand that can spur on the multiplier effect in the management of the economy are all incontestably related to the ethos of procurement activities in the nation,” he said. Mr Mwelwa said that it was not a secret that procurement function was the wheels on which Governments slid and also the fulcrum on which development of both public and private companies depended. He said the benefits of austerity measures would not be realized unless and until the players in the procurement process deliberately applied themselves and conducted the procurement process premised on prudent management and value addition processes.