By Joshua Banda –

This year has surely and steadily been revealing economic and developmental opportunities and placing huge responsibilities and tasks on the shoulders of local authorities which must actively participate in developing the nation.
Following the pronouncement that Government has increased the Constituency Development Fund in the 2022 National Budget, from K1.6 million to K25.7 million per constituency, this adds responsibility to the local authorities on the management of the fund.
Zambia has 156 constituencies through which development will be fostered.
The Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development is equal to the task and has already approved the CDF committees which should hit the road running the moment the economic whistle is blown.
City/town councils
City and town councils have a mammoth task ahead of them to take national development to another level in their respective constituencies.
The local authorities are now directly responsible for implementing various developments in their jurisdictions.
Procurement is at the center of it all.
First and foremost, there will be need to build capacity in the procurement personnel to handle contracts of this magnitude.
It should not be taken for granted that the councils have qualified personnel.
Capacity building has to seriously be undertaken.
K25.7 million per constituency is capable of constructing a school, health post and roads, all at the same time, among other things.
The directorate of works should be very alert as far as national development is concerned.
Contract and project management
Put simply, contract management is the overseeing of execution and implementation of activities stated in the contracts entered into with contractors, consultants, suppliers or generally vendors according to the terms and conditions agreed.
It is sometimes referred to as contract administration or customer lifecycle.
This process ensures that there is compliance of terms and conditions of the contract by both parties.
Contract management takes care of any changes, amendments or variations that may occur during implementation.
Effective contract management and administration ensures that risks of non-performance of projects are mitigated.
Procurement professionals, being drafters of contracts, are required to assist contract or project managers in ensuring that all contracts are well managed and executed.
Without close monitoring, there would be sub-standard delivery of goods, works or services as most vendors have the tendency to relax in the execution of contracts.
After signing the contract, contract management and administration, as well as project management, become critical.
The Public Procurement Act No. 8 of 2020, section 76, and the Public Procurement Regulations of 2011, regulations 145 and 146 clearly provide guidelines on contract management.
If all parts of the country are to develop, controlling officers at provincial level, town clerks, town council secretaries and district commissioners must work collaboratively and participate fully in the management and administration of contracts to ensure that development reaches all the 156 constituencies across the country.
Situations where the local authorities and district administrations are flexing their biceps and triceps to compare who is in control or in charge at the expense of development should by all means be avoided.
If schools and hospitals under construction are properly monitored, supervised, inspected and managed – especially infrastructure in the rural areas – they would stand the test of time and quality education and medical attention would be guaranteed.
This is because it is such controls which are genuinely required to achieve the desired development.
If roads are properly managed and monitored to completion, immense benefits would include easy transportation of farm products to the market and quick transportation of agricultural inputs to the farmers across the country.
Green environment
As much as we want to foster development in the country, we need to be mindful of our environment.
Because of the seriousness of this matter, the Government has introduced the Ministry of Green Economy and Environment.
Infrastructure development comes with it environmental degradation which causes climate change.
Climate change has impacted on our country leading to situations such as reduced rainfall in some parts of the country, while other parts receive average rainfall and other parts receive abnormally high rainfall.
Climate change has equally impacted on some of our neighbouring countries and the whole world, thus experiencing different climatic changes.
Lately, there has been a global demand that enterprises, suppliers and contractors behave in an environmentally responsible manner to mitigate climate change which has dire consequences on all living creatures, humans inclusive.
This attribute is said to be environmentally and economically sensible as it borders on saving life and improving the economic situation of the players involved.
This principle of pollution prevention is highly considered, obviously because of its likelihood to eradicate or rather reduce the risks to human health and the environment.
COP 26 Climate Summit was held in the global green city, Glasgow in Scotland to address some of the ambitious and critical issues.
The summit attracted heads of State and ministers from various continents to devise ways of protecting our planet from global warming.
Local vendors
Sections 39 and 41 of the Public Procurement Act No.8 of 2020 empowers local and citizen bidders and consultants.
Open national bidding has been limited to local and citizen bidders only, while open international bidding shall be open to all eligible bidders.
But foreign bidders will be required to partner with citizen bidders or citizen suppliers.
Open national selection shall also be limited to citizen and local bidders while open international selection shall be open to all eligible bidders.
This resonates well with the pronouncements by the Government to empower Zambians and to deliver development to every part of the country.
If well administered, this part of the Act has the potential to fundamentally change the domestic economic outlook of every constituency.
When tenders are won by local and citizen bidders, the money due to them will be retained in the country, thereby boosting the domestic economy and improving the livelihood of citizens. The spiral effect trickles money down from the enterprise itself to its workers, and then the workers’ families, and the cycle continues.
Additionally, there will be propagation of transfer of knowledge from foreign consultants to local consultants especially in the areas were we lack expertise.
By so doing, the country will grow its reservoir of knowledge and improve the quality of consultants at all levels.
Under Section 91 of the Act, there is a preference of using local inputs, products and personnel in the production of goods and services.
A margin of preference is, therefore, granted to a bidder who is offering goods, works or services with local content.
Preference and reservation schemes will help target groups to grow their businesses and encourage other target groups.
Certain procurement requirements will specifically be set aside for local bidders.
The Government’s economic and social policies will determine a target group for any preference or reservation scheme.
Beneficiary target groups include Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
Others are enterprises owned by women, youths and the differently abled persons.
This will improve private sector participation in the public procurement and will further improve the local economy.
The onus is on the local vendors themselves.
Apparently, history has it that some local contractors have exhibited poor performance of contracts.
The contractors and suppliers are now challenged to up their game.
It would be sad to see local contractors and suppliers being permanently barred by Zambia Public Procurement Authority (ZPPA) from participating in public tenders as a result of underperformance or abandoning projects after getting paid.
The Act under section 97 supports the permanent bar of a contractor or supplier.
Fulfilling the contractual obligations is the only way parties can work mutually.
This means the employer has committed resources to pay the contractor and the contractor has committed to deliver the works or goods as agreed.
Contravening the new Act by the local contractors and suppliers will mean doing injustice to ourselves as Zambians.
Financial resources have now been brought closer to the people through increased CDF.
SMEs should now be well organized than before and participate fully in developing their constituencies.
The procurement fraternity, especially at district level, will now be under pressure considering that their workload has increased sixteen fold.
However, the focus should not be lost, but this should be taken as an opportunity to serve mother Zambia and contribute positively as a profession.
The author is former chairperson for Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply.