Procurement flaw rocks Poly
The Internal Procurement Committee (IPC) of the University of Malawi’s Polytechnic is under fire from the college’s Department of Technical Education over questionable buying of learning materials, Nation on Sundayhas learnt.
The department has accused the IPC of exaggerating invoices at a time the college is struggling to feed students and support their academic progress due to inadequate funding.
In a letter to Polytechnic principal Professor Grant Kululanga that Nationon Sunday has seen, the concerned staff have since demanded that the college returns the department’s workshop teaching and learning materials bought at K5 646 304 from Super Hardware when there were cheaper alternatives that would have saved the college over K4 million.
The materials in question include square tubes and angle irons of various sizes; sand paper metal, red oxide, dust musk, wood screw, soft wood, hard wood, round and flat bars.
Head of the college’s Department of Technical Education Noel Kufaine expressed his section’s dismay in the memorandum dated May 20 2013 addressed to the principal and copied to the vice-principal, the registrar, the college finance officer, the procurement officer, faculty deans, heads of departments and the T8 section head.
“On 3rd May 2013, my office presented a query on the prices for the workshop teaching and learning materials which was addressed to the chairman of Polytechnic Internal Procurement Committee.
“I was called by the vice-principal [Dr. Moses Chinyama] on May 13th 2013 to discuss the matter. I took it that he was representing the [committee] if he is not the chairman himself. The discussion touched on several areas in relation to procurement, which included the practice and procedures. The conclusion of the discussion is what prompted me to write your office for intervention,” reads Kufaine’s letter.
He argues that instead of dealing with his concerns, the matter was pushed back to him when he was asked to carry out a price check of the commodities bought and compare them with those paid for at Super Hardware.
His expectation, according to the communication, was for the responsible committee to take up the matter as a matter of urgency and deal with it accordingly.
Kufaine further queried the vice-principal’s suggestion to forget about the incident and move on by becoming more vigilant in future and to simply draw lessons from it.
“This comment was the most unfortunate because the discrepancy in the prices was visible even by a blind person. When I reported the matter to members of my departments, they were even more confused. We agreed to use our network to search for the prices as concerned members,” he said.
Kufaine said the price check vindicated them because they discovered that prices were exaggerated. The team visited Mercury and Niks Hardware and the findings shocked them.
According to Kufaine’s letter, Mercury Hardware offered the same commodities at K948 560 which, if bought from it, the Polytechnic would have saved K4 697 744. Niks Hardware gave an invoice of K1 538 460 for the same items, revealing the possibility of saving K4 107 843.
Based on the findings, Kufaine asked the college to return the items to the initial supplier, Super Hardware, to save “the much-needed money” to be utilised for other important activities in the department.
“Please note that if the procurement committee insists that we should not return the materials, then the department’s position is that we will only pay the amount equivalent to the total from Mercury Hardware, the difference will be shouldered by the procurement committee.
“Let me ask your office to deal with this issue from the root and as a matter of urgency. And please note that this is a government institution which uses taxpayers’ money,” Kufaine told the principal.
Registrar Margaret Longwe, on Thursday said this was not an issue worth publicising as it is an internal college matter being dealt with by its system.
Longwe wondered how the memo should become a bone of contention when there were many other cases within the college that did not become public.
“This is a matter that would otherwise be reported to the ODPP [Office of the Director of Public Procurement] and the Anti-Corruption Bureau [ACB]. It is only after these institutions have dealt with it that it can be made public.
“In all fairness and for professional reporting, this is a sensitive matter that should be left alone. I would not want to comment on anything now. Just know that it is being dealt with,” she said.
