POLITICIANS AND PUBLIC PROCUREMENT TENDERS (EDITORIAL COMMENT FOR SATURDAY 3RD AUGUST 2014) THERE is too much unnecessary and unfair hatred for politicians. And when it comes to issues of corruption in this country, we do not think that the politicians are the most corrupt. We believe civil servants and other public workers may be far more corrupt than politicians. Even when it comes to issues of government procurements, it is not necessarily the decisions and actions of the politicians that are responsible for the corruption and other abuses that we are witnessing. It is civil servants who are responsible for most of these abuses and corrupt deeds. Even where politicians are corrupt, it is not possible for them to carry out their corrupt activities without the assistance or collusion of civil servants and other public workers. But it is possible for civil servants and other public workers to engage in corruption without the involvement or collusion of politicians. We are being told by George Mumba, president of the Zambia Institute of Purchasing and Supply, that “politicians have no role in terms of tendering processes. They have a role in advocacy and making sure that the procurement processes are done expeditiously; that is their role, and you can’t refuse that”. It cannot be denied that sometimes things get so bad in terms of corruption and abuse that the politicians - honest politicians - have to step in to correct the situation by cancelling tenders and asking for everything to be re-advertised. They are entitled to do this and they should do it in public interest - of course not out of personal interests or out of a desire to have tenders awarded to their friends or associates. No one has the right to abuse public resources or to engage in corruption. If a politician engages in tender or procurement corruption, it is much easier to deal with him or her because of the Ministerial and Parliamentary Code of Conduct. Anyone can raise the alarm against the politician’s mischief and have a tribunal appointed to probe the misconduct. And we have seen quite a number of such tribunals appointed in the recent past over issues of suspected wrongdoing by politicians. Clearly, the problem here is not necessarily one of interference in government procurements by politicians but one of civil servants in charge of tender processes being corrupt or open to corruption. Most, if not all, government contracts are awarded by civil servants and other public workers. There are even times when a tender appraisal panel includes officers from the intelligence services and other security and law enforcement agencies, but still the tender processes end up being corrupted. It’s very rare that a politician can be part of a tender process. And those who have tried to do that have ended up in problems. They are being investigated by the Anti-Corruption Commission or have altogether been removed from their offices. But how often do we see that happen to corrupt civil servants and other public workers who are involved in tender processes? Truly, it is not the job of politicians to award tenders. But it is their job to ensure that those who have been given the responsibility to award tenders do it with sufficient honour and integrity. This is so because at the end of the day, it is the politicians who are accountable for delivery of social services and infrastructure development to the public. When and where civil servants are corrupt, a distinction will not be made between them and the politicians. The blame will not lie with the civil servants but with the politicians. Look at how rich the civil servants and other public workers who are involved in government procurement are! It is not possible to find a similar number of politicians who have amassed wealth from government procurements like these civil servants. Yes, there are a few politicians who are suppliers to government using all sorts of schemes. We also have politicians who are suppliers to the mines and other entities doing business with government. But how many politicians do we have doing that? The number is certainly very small. But we have many civil servants and other public workers who are running businesses through all sorts of fronts supplying government institutions. We also have many civil servants and other public workers getting all sorts of commissions, bribes from those doing business with government. We have very high levels of corruption in our government procurement system because of corrupt civil servants and other public workers and not much so because of corrupt politicians. Concentrating on fighting corruption at the level of politicians, without paying much attention to civil servants and other public workers, will not help us much. Any serious fight against corruption in the procurement system has to seriously address the abuses being perpetrated by civil servants and other public workers. These are the main drivers of corruption in this country. They are the ones who sometimes even corrupt politicians or introduce them into corruption and other abuses. So the challenge we have is not so much one arising from the involvement of politicians in the actual process of tendering, evaluation and awarding of contracts but of civil servants being corrupt. Honest civil servants will not accept corrupt orders or instructions on tenders from politicians.
Posted on: Sun, 03 Aug 2014 06:22:33 +0000
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