MSISKA

By BRIAN HATYOKA-
PROCUREMENT officers in Southern Africa should avoid engaging in bribes to instil confidence in the supply chain, Private Sector Development Programme (PSDP) programme coordinator at Cabinet Office Kayula Siame has said.
Ms Siame said procurement officers must ensure that their profession was beyond reproach despite the temptation of engaging in bribery.
Ms Siame was speaking in Livingstone at Zambezi Sun Hotel yesterday when she opened a three-day 2014 Southern Africa Procurement and Supply Chain Management Symposium.
“As procurement professionals, your job should be beyond reproach by ensuring that you don’t take or give bribes. A lot of suppliers have a tendency of inflating their prices because they are expecting to be given something in return in form of a bribe,” she said.
Ms Siame said because of various tricks by suppliers, Government was compelled to pay more to procure goods and services.
Ms Siame, who represented Secretary to Cabinet Rowland Msiska at the conference, said the Zambian Government through the PSDP was implementing an industrialisation strategy of creating 1, 000, 000 jobs in the country by 2016.
She also urged professionals in the supply chain to enhance their own knowledge of both technical and legal aspects to enable them remain relevant to the industry.
Ms Siame said there was also need for procurement officers to have fair competition, integrity and sound judgement in their work.
“You also need to engage Small to Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) in matters of public procurement. I wish to encourage you to look at guidelines and regulations of your profession. Remove complications for SMEs and other small entities people to participate in public procurement,” she said.
Other speakers expected to make presentation at the conference include a legal expert Mumba Kapumpa, Zimbabwe’s Old Mutual Group Procurement representative Vushetti Makoni, Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) Director General Chibamba Kanyama and DHL Zimbabwe Commerciall Director Eddie Chiringah.