The green tick of excellence: Supply Chain Management

Weskus Distrik’s Senior Manager: Supply Chain Management Maurice Markus is delighted with the green ticks from the Auditor General on procurement and contract management.

Maurice explains why this rare result isn’t easy to achieve.

“Last year, we scored an ‘ orange tick’ due to a minor deviation which was nothing untoward. Getting all green ticks is remarkable because supply chain management is a complex function that is understandably highly regulated. “Public procurement is an area open to fraud, financial loss, and irregular practices. The laws and regulations are stringent, but you do need the skill to understand and apply it.”

“Section 217 (1) of the Constitution envisages supply chain management systems that are fair, equitable, transparent, competitive and cost-effective to achieve optimal value for public money spent and ensure equitable opportunities for suppliers to participate in government business.”

Meticulous contract management and rigorous payment control mechanisms should be in place to ensure that payments are made only upon supplier’s timely delivery, agreed-upon pricing is adhered to, and specified quality standards are complied with.

What is the cost of delinquent supply chain management?

Maurice provides two examples.

“When corruption or irregularities occur in the supply chain, the price of goods increases. Simplistically, this can result in an overrun of budget, and lead to an incomplete project. In some cases, the project does not even commence. Service delivery is the casualty. and loss of confidence soon follows. Companies withdraw from the region and investors shy away. The result is job losses.”

“Another serious outcome of a flawed supply chain management process is when a tender bidder takes legal action against a municipality for awarding an irregular tender to a competitor of the litigant. In this instance, the municipality must spend a significant amount of ratepayer’s money on defending the action. It gets worse, because the case can spend years in court, and essential infrastructural projects are delayed.”

Congratulations to Maurice Markus and his team for keeping Weskus Distrik clean and in the green!!