President Hichilema Demands Changes To Public Procurement When He Returns From New York
President Hakainde Hichilema has directed his cabinet to carry out sweeping reforms of the public procurement system, to ensure against abuse and corruption, by the time he returns from his upcoming trip to New York.
At a cabinet swearing-in ceremony on Wednesday, the president impressed upon ministers the need for government procurement to be carried out at the right price, for the right quality goods and in a timely manner.
“As a new administration, we should come up with efficient procurement measures that will facilitate timely delivery of material procured, with good quality and at a right price,” he said.
Afterwards he directed Vice President Mutale Nalumango and Secretary to the Cabinet Simon Miti to enact specific measures to avoid wasting public resources.
“So immediately madam, your honour, the secretary to cabinet, ministers, as I come back from New York I would like to find specific track measures that you would have made to adjust the procurement processes to allow these three principles to occur. I think that’s fair, I don’t think I’m asking for too much, he said.
He added, “the taxpayers are losing money and it’s interfering with our capability to create jobs for our youths.”
Under the previous Patriotic Front government, materials such as fertiliser were often purchased at exorbitant prices to line the pockets of PF cronies who sold the goods. In the PF’s final year in office, the government was beset by a number of high profile procurement scandals, including the Honey Bee pharmacies debacle, in which sub-standard medical equipment was purchased for $17 million. The discovery led to the sacking of then-Health Minister Chitalu Chilufya.
President Hichilema leaves for New York on Monday in order to deliver an address to the United Nations General Assembly. While in America, he will meet with the U.S. President Joe Biden as well as representatives from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Africa Business Centre.