Baboki Kayawe
13 November 2009
It is estimated that 60 percent of the government's development budget is spent through the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Board (PPADB), the country's public procurement institution.
Hence, the Minister of Finance and Development Planning, Kenneth Matambo, says public procurement is particularly important for governments as it accounts for a significant proportion of the GDP.
Matambo said this when closing at the just-ended Fourth Commonwealth Public Procurement Network Conference (CPPN), the first to be held in Botswana. "I am informed that in the developed countries, public procurement accounts for between 10 to 15 percent of the GDP while it accounts for up to 25 percent in developing countries," he said. "In Botswana, it accounts for about 60 percent of the development budget."
Having become one of the most critical functions in leading organisations, procurement plays a vital role in facilitating the realisation of government's development goals.
The minister said procurement practitioners should endeavour to promote industrial, social and environmental policy objectives alongside diversifying the economy and citizen economic empowerment.
"I therefore wish to implore you to carefully consider your roles in the context of facilitating the implementation of Government's socio-economic policy objectives through public procurement," he said.
However, this should be done within the law as efficient procurement procedures should contribute to efficient project implementation and service delivery. "It is desirable that public procurement systems must be integrated with development planning and framework and budgetary approval processes," Matambo said.
He hailed PPADB in its process of implementing a web-based system with various procurement modules to assist in effective and efficient delivery, saying this should enable PPADB to de-centralise its services to procuring entities and bidding communities."Procurement practitioners should keep pace with national, regional and international practices," Matambo said.The Executive Chairman of PPADB, Armando Lionjanga, said public procurement is important as evidenced by increased awareness by governments worldwide as its expenditure represents sizeable proportions of GDP.
"A considerable part of most countries' resources are expended through their respective public procurement regimes," Lionjanga said.He said any collective quest by procurement practitioners in making the exercise more efficient in order to ensure value for money is highly commendable as it translates into better quality service and project delivery to the public.Commenting on the theme Leadership and Innovation in Public Procurement, Lionjanga said the forum had availed an invaluable opportunity to participants as it enabled them to compare experiences on best practices and trends.
The conference offered an opportunity for participants from the Commonwealth to mainstream risk management and effective record management.
Other objectives of the workshop included strengthening network linkages between the Commonwealth procurement regulatory agencies for information sharing, assisting delegates to benchmark their procurement regimes and regulatory systems against the value adding functions of emerging best practices and shared innovations.
"This conference offers a tremendous opportunity for participants to share information as well as learn from each other's experiences and importantly start a mutual beneficial collaborative process," Lionjanga said.
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