Civil servants dominate tender

Civil servants from various ministries and departments have taken three quarters of the tender to supply and deliver stationery and toners to the Central Government Stores (CGS) meant for public service use between now and February 2014, The Nation has established.

While the law shows no conflict of interest as long as the public servants are not supplying within their workplaces, governance experts are worried that this could be one of the ways through which civil servants connive to steal.

On the other hand, the tender in question has angered the 5 000-member Stationery Suppliers Association which has been sidelined in the award of the contracts valued at about K2 billion (US$5.4 million).

This development also comes in the wake of the December 2012 circular from the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) that “all stationery should be bought centrally from the Central Government Stores”.

The circular on expenditure control measures was a follow-up to the March 2011 circular also from the same office.

The March 25 2011 circular read in part: “All procurement of commonly used items such as stationery and detergents will be done through the Central Government Stores and all payments will be cash on delivery.”

The circular said the CGS will procure the items in bulk directly from manufacturers with the lowest possible prices.

Fast forward to February 2013, CGS published tender NCB Ref No.090/IPC/CGS/2013/14/02 titled ‘Supply and delivery of Stationery and Toners 2013-14/02 under framework agreement’.

The tender sought the supply of 123 different items in quantities ranging from 50 to 100 000 which various suppliers quoted at a maximum of K2.9 billion.

According to documents we have seen, due bid delivery date was June 25 2013 and bids were opened from CGS premises. At the tender opening, it showed 54 companies had tendered for the supply.

The list of those awarded the job shows that out of 54, 17 have been picked out of which sources said 12 are civil servants.

The Nation independently verified eight of the firms as being owned by civil servants working in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation; Civil Service Commission; Ministry of Education, Science and Technology; the Department of Human Resource Management; Accountant General’s Department and Ministry of Finance.

The companies are CTC Investments, LKS General Traders, Sakuni Investment, Latisha G Supplies, Scamel Investment, Jordan Investments, Lemico G Dealers and Tusangalare Enterprise.

In an interview on Wednesday, CGS director Kenneth Mwenera said: “It is not up to us to check who is behind which company. When suppliers come to you, do they come in the name of a person or company? We conduct ourselves in accordance with the law.”

Among others, the Public Procurement Act cautions against conflict of interest which, according to Director of Public Procurement Dye Mawindo, is defined as “participating in procurement proceedings being undertaken by the entities that they work for.”

He explained, however, that the matter at CGS is strange, calling on law enforcement agencies to investigate.

“However, in the case at hand, it is most strange that more than 60 percent of the successful bidders were public servants. As such, this is something that we need the law enforcement agencies to investigate to assure all stakeholders that it is a mere coincidence, if that is what it is,” said Mawindo in an e-mailed response.

Nonetheless, he emphasised that public servants are allowed to supply to the public service because “by allowing public servants to bid in procurements of other public entities, the law allows them to exercise their right to economic activity.”

Mawindo also noted that his office has no details on this particular procurement, suggesting it “might have been within Central Government Stores threshold.”

But according to the ODPP, the 2013/14 CGS threshold within which they can procure without the public procurement authority is K50 million for goods, K30 million for services and K20 million for works.

The law in Section 28 (1) also encourages government departments to “provide maximum opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprises to participate as suppliers, contractors, consultants and subcontractors in public procurement.”

But Baxter Kitta, chairperson of the National Association of Suppliers of Stationery and Office Equipment (Nasso), said this policy is being hampered by collusion between civil servants from different departments who give each other opportunities.

He said: “According to revelations, it shows that siphoning of public funds is happening through dubious procurements.”

Mawindo supported this suggestion, saying: “We are currently reviewing the law with the aim of seeing how best it can be improved. The suggestion is thus most welcome and we will see how best it can be taken on board.”

According to the Competition and Fair Trade Commission (CFTC) what matters is that the tenders ought to be competitive enough to be awarded the contract based on set criteria.

“It is up to the people with information to lodge a complaint with the relevant institution,” said Wezi Malonda, CFTC executive director.

According to ODPP, Malawi’s legal framework espouses the principle that procurement should not only be undertaken transparently but it should be seen to be undertaken completely above board.

“The rationale is to avoid possible conflict of interest or appearance of impropriety. Thus, where an officer evaluating bids or considering an award knows any of the bidders, that party is required to declare that potential conflict of interest and recuse himself,” said Mawindo.

OPC, which issued the circular to centralise stationery procurement,  said the directive is still in force.

Arthur Chipenda, OPC spokesperson, said in an interview: “The Office of the Director of Public Procurement has circulated a list of prequalified suppliers which procurement entities use to procure goods and services.”

But according to the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP), the handling of such procurements in the public sector smacks of lack of transparency and accountability.

“It is interesting that government is not seeing the problem of conflict of interest in allowing civil servants to supply commodities to government. It begs an interesting question of values and standards in procurement processes,” said CCJP national secretary Chris Chisoni.