PRAZ boss wins CEO of the Year
NYASHA Chizu, the Chief Executive Officer for the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (PRAZ) was awarded 2018 Megafest CEO of the Year. Nyasha is driven by the famous Ray Croc quote that “The quality of a leader is reflected in the standards they set for themselves.” As PRAZ CEO since January 2018 Nyasha Chizu together with his team set high standards to ensure that public procurement in the country is done in an efficient, fair and transparent manner the objective being to achieve the Vision of PRAZ which is to have “An efficient and effective Public Procurement system by 2030.”
PRAZ’s Vision is aligned with the Vision of His Excellency the President, Cde ED Mnangagwa of an “Upper middle income state by 2030,” which can only be achieved by efficient and effective public procurement that creates value for money through the procurement of the right goods, in the right manner from right sources at optimal costs and at the right time.
Background The Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Act [Chapter 22:23] was operationalised through S.I. 152 of 17 December 2017, repealing the Procurement Act [Chapter 22:14] and dissolved the State Procurement Board. The Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe was established on 1st January 2018.
The new mandate of the Authority is to supervise public procurement proceedings to ensure transparency, fairness, honesty, cost-effectiveness and competition. The reforms separate regulatory and operational functions and the awarding of tenders is now done by accounting officers in various State entities.
In 2018 the PRAZ Board of Directors chaired by prominent lawyer, Mrs Vimbai Nyemba were appointed by His Excellency the President, Cde E. D. Mnangagwa and they hit the ground running. They formulated a structure for the new Authority and together with Nyasha Chizu who was the Acting CEO then, started recruiting to fully resource PRAZ. The Authority with a current staff complement of 56 then started to implement the tenets of the new Act and Regulations.
Capacity building of State-owned enterprises
To effectively manage the paradigm shift from the repealed Procurement Act [Chapter 22:14] the public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Act [Chapter 22:23], the immediate task for the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe was to build capacity of Procurement Management Units in procuring entities. This has seen the capacity building team going on a spree of sensitisation workshops to sensitise all stakeholders on the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Act and Regulations. This activity is on-going since the operationalisation of the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Act on 1 January 2018. The programs shall be on full throttle to ensure all entities align with the new Act before 31 December 2019 when the transitional period expires.
The operations department on the other hand is assisting all state enterprises to implement the Act and Regulations. One of the requirements of the Act is that all entities are authorised to operate procurement management units by PRAZ. Now 75 percent of procuring entities are registered PMUs and a few have their applications being processed.
Professionalisation of procurement The Authority is now in the final stage of developing a Statutory Instrument to facilitate the establishment of a Council of Procurement Practitioners that will regulate the practice and establish standards. The council will also endeavour to facilitate continuous professional development of members and promote the role of procurement in society. This shall facilitate the issuing of “licence for practice” for all public procurement officers. The certification programme for the proposed three levels has already been developed by the modernisation of the State Procurement Board Project. The Council of Procurement Practitioners is expected to be in place by mid-2019.
Ease of Doing Business Supplier registration by bidders has been made simpler. Companies are now only required to submit company registration documents as opposed to the previous requirements that demanded numerous credentials. This is part of the new Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Regulations as Government moves to bring efficiency in the country’s procurement system. The move will also enhance the ease of doing business. The new rules, contained in Statutory Instrument 5 of 2018, also allows Government to legally engage individuals as consultants. Electronic Government procurement The Authority is now working on implementing e-Government Procurement (e-GP) which will further enhance the ease doing business with PRAZ.
Who is Nyasha Chizu?
Nyasha Chizu is the Chief Executive Officer for the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe since January 2018. He was attached to the Office of the President and Cabinet as the technical person for the Public Procurement Reform that promulgated the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Act [Chapter 22:23]. The Act established the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe whose mandate among others is to set standards, monitor and evaluate, professionalise and modernise public procurement in Zimbabwe.
Chizu has over two decades of supply chain management experience spanning the private and public sector handling different portfolios in procurement, stores and logistics management. He has done a series of supply chain consultancy and was the World Bank procurement consultant for the Country Integrated Fiduciary Assessment (CIFA) of Zimbabwe that produced the Country Procurement Assessment Report (CPAR) that is guiding the Public Procurement Reforms.
He is a Fellow of Chartered Institute of Purchasing Supply (CIPS), a member of the Institute of Directors Zimbabwe and a member of the International Research Group in Public Procurement.
He is a holder of the CIPS Graduate Diploma, a Post Graduate Diploma in Management for Executives and Masters’ Degree in Business Administration from University of Zimbabwe and Master’s Degree in Public Procurement Law and Policy from University of Nottingham.