Space Suit Test: Procurement Process In Public Entities

‘As I hurtled through space, one thought kept crossing my mind –

Every part of this rocket was supplied by the lowest bidder.’  

                                                                                                Astronaut John Glenn

John Glenn was the first American to orbit the earth aboard a space capsule in 1962 at speeds of up to 17,000 miles per hour, thrice circling the globe in less than five hours. The mission,which was critical to understanding the human body’s reaction to outer space environment , no doubt, stretched the boundaries of exploration for future astronomy to the extent that mankind can today idealise colonising other celestial bodies.

The opening quote, though made in jest by the astronaut, was in response to a reporter’s question concerning the entire experience when he was back from space after his Mercury Capsule had safely landed in the Pacific Ocean near Bermuda.

It, however, underscores the fact that he appreciated that his human guinea pig role would have amounted to naught had the processes of putting him into space, including the acquisition of the hardware and software elements, not been par excellence and were sacrificed at the altar of cost minimization, as is common with procurement procedures in taxpayer-funded projects and entities.

Procurement

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) obviously has some of the strictest procurement procedures anywhere in the world owing to the exploratory nature of its activities in environments that normally do not support life.

The effect of a seemingly minor infraction of the rules or miscalculation in terms a tangent formula or quality of construction material could be compounded in celestial environment and prove to be fatal as was witnessed when the Colombia space shuttle disintegrated on re-entry in the year 2003 with seven astronauts on board. Therefore, even the standard operating procedures have to be very high.

It is often cited that a procurement manager’s role entails securing the best deals for the organisation by finding low cost suppliers that can deliver the specified quality of goods or services.

The low cost element in that description is what I feel is often taken a bit too literally by Procurement Committees to imply affordability or less-than-the-best quality, and is almost invariably, employed by unscrupulous parties in the process to  inflate the cost of deliverables.

A recent Kenya government report shows that sixty per cent of our annual budget is spent on procurement, thirty percent of which is lost through procurement fraud - a monster which we have gotten used to accommodating in to our very own living rooms.

The effect of this form of corruption goes beyond the numbers as quality of goods and services is compromised and neither are the advantages of competition fully realised.

The culprits in these procurement committees settle for the lowest bidder with not so much as a keen interest on the quality of goods, but on what their cut is likely to be once they inflate the prices.

Therefore, the quality of the deliverables directly impacts the quality of service that the public will eventually receive.  For instance, a tender committee may settle for an older generation of a computer for its Accounting department, say a P4, and install Windows XP as the operating system since these particular specifications cost less, with the intention of entering them in the fixed assets register at the same cost as a current model, say Core i7 and Windows 10 respectively. This may be done also to provide further opportunities for sitting in the respective committees while procuring upgrades or relevant peripherals of the said computers. That may explain why you find systems are slow or a computer has hanged as you await a dear service. 

But let’s give credit where it’s due. The government has made some strides in tackling the bureaucracy levels through the introduction of online services as well as launching of the Huduma centre across the country that has significantly cut the time previously used in accessing of government services. This has proven quite helpful to the masses especially to the youth and women who can now easily access information on and participate in the tendering process.

Another milestone has been the Integrated Financial Management System (IFMIS) popularly known as e-procurement system which has attempted to automate the procurement system in order to minimize the human interface though solid gains are yet to be realised. 

This is because, save for the initiating department’s requisition and receipt of applications through the supplier portal, the rest of the process is still conducted manually as per the Act- that is, through the Tender Opening Committee, Tender Evaluation Committee, Inspection and Acceptance Committee, Project Management Teams, and  Disposal Committee. Nonetheless, the system has increased the level of transparency to some extent though there is still room for improvement.

The Public Procurement Oversight Authority (PPOA) also plays an important role in as far as adherence to the laws pertaining to the efficient operation of the open tender system in public sector is concerned. Its mandate includes handling of complaints and appeals from tender participants, as well as providing regulations on procurement. The Authority is also involved in the training of staff and implementation of policy within public entities.

For capital intensive public projects, the Value for Money analysis, which is used to determine whether to utilize the PPP (Public Private Partnership) or the usual procurement procedure as laid down in the Public Procurement and Disposal Act of 2015, may be utilised. This mode, however, tends to be skewed to the benefit of cronies and known tenderpreneurs who inflate the cost of the tenders so as to afford kickbacks to their benefactors in the tender committees.

In summary, there are enough mechanisms at the government's disposal( at least on paper) to ensure that, procurement, as a vital function in the smooth running of public entity operations is well regulated in order to get the best value for this investment.

Excellence model  

The legal framework of Public Procurement in Kenya is originated in The Constitution of Kenya 2010 and applies to both levels of government viz National government and the County governments as prescribed in Schedule IV.

Since the most preferred method of tendering is the open tendering as opposed to direct sourcing, (due to the advantages competition the former brings .e.g. better quality and low costs) it is possible to introduce Excellence as an additional parameter.

By this I mean a policy paradigm shift where excellence is institutionalized right from the regulations, manuals as well as in all the stages of the procurement process. One would have hoped that it formed part of our National values under Article 10 of our constitution, but we will get there one step at a time.

Most civil servants are guided by the principle of frugality and minimisation of wastefulness, as any portrayal of extravagance might just lead to cutting of budget allocations by the government. So, as calculated stealth intended to ward off attention and unnecessary scrutiny from superiors and the Audit office, an image of average is inadvertently borne, which forms part of the organizational culture.

Ever walked in to a public office and just from the general ambience, you feel that things can be done a little better there, or that minimal effort was put in the acquisitions therein such that you almost lower your level of expectation in terms of the service being sought? And I am not referring to the quality of customer service as compared to the corporate sector since one does not require any motivation to be their best.

Some may argue that the corporate world is governed by the goals of profit and wealth maximization as opposed to provision of optimal services to the public for government entities; but the truth is that the same public is comprised of the corporate sector which is regulated by these public entities!

We might not be able to do much to rescue the situation when it comes to the National government which has been cultured to work like so for decades, but something can be done for the new County governments before they are indoctrinated by those officers on secondment.

The Counties are still in the process of acquiring their fixed assets and installation of technology, and therefore, nothing short of excellence should be expected of them.

Procurement is an ongoing process and therefore all effort should be trained on ensuring that a good image becomes a factor for consideration, even if implemented at a small premium to demonstrate customer appreciation.

Retraining of staff in this regard, which scope should include benchmarking with similar institutions and processes worldwide could help kick start the process. Google can be utilized for research purposes without necessarily incurring any further travel expenses abroad.

The quality of the procurement department personnel will, therefore, be a vital consideration as their exposure and negotiating skills will come to the fore and could give the public entity an edge in terms of high quality acquisitions and at fair considerations. The cost of excellence therefore, need not cost the organisation an arm and a leg.

Excellence Champion

The implementation of excellence can be fast tracked by the adoption of the Excellence Champion office, (similar to Ethics Champions in government entities) so as to facilitate its smooth implementation in all procurement processes.  

Notice that this would be restricted to the procurement department, and will only serve to complement any other overall organisation strategies such as the kaizen principle or the Total Quality Management system.

It would entail the Excellence officer reviewing the entire procurement process and signing against a prescribed check list and noting the respective committee’s adherence to the Excellence principle or lack thereof, in terms of value for money and the quality of supplies. 

This officer may also be allowed to sit in the various committees, especially for procurement involving huge capital outlays. Proper exposure, education and a high level of integrity will, therefore, be a pre-requisite for such an officer as he or she undertakes to continuously improve his or her reports through research.

A sensitization of the tender applicants on the need to incorporate excellence, including undertaking to continuously improve on their value proposition or after-sales services, may also make the implementation of this principle much smoother.

The Public procurement Regulatory Authority can go a step further to include this as a cardinal in all training manuals so as to incorporate it in their oversight, administrative and other roles.

Hope is the basis of all healing arts, as author Ngugi wa Thiong’o says.

Once excellence in procurement procedures similar to those applied in the acquisition of space suit components is the norm, you’ll see it in the ambience as well as in the level of customer service delivery in almost all public entities.