An investigative study into the impact of the newly introduced procurement policy on the supply chain departments in Namibia
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Date
2022
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
University of Namibia
Abstract
The study investigated the impact of the newly introduced procurement act on
the supply chain departments in Namibia. The Public Procurement Act, 2015
(Act No. 15 of 2015) was enacted and came into effect on 01 April 2017. The
act aims to increase transparency and accountability. The Namibian government
uses public procurement to achieve socio-economic objectives, which are
commonly referred to as horizontal policies. This practice is a widely accepted
tool of public procurement and has been around for a long time and includes
objectives such as poverty alleviation by reducing the unemployment rate and
providing equal opportunities to groups from previously disadvantaged
communities such as women and youth through economic empowerment. The
mixed methods research design was used in this study. Purposive sampling was
used to select employees from finance and procurement departments. The study
established that 40% of the respondents were male while 60% were female. In
addition, 80% of the participants indicated that the procurement act had
improved the processes of selecting suppliers, while 20% of the respondents
thought there was no improvement. A total of 40% of the respondents indicated
that the effectiveness of the procurement act was high, and 30% indicated that
it was just average. Conversely, 15% of the respondents indicated that it was
low, 5% indicated that it was very low, and 5% indicated that it was very high.
The study also established that the Government should invest in appropriate
information and communication technology such as databases on goods and
services prices to support procurement officials in their daily work and
decisions. A key challenge in Namibia has been the need to define an adequate
level of transparency to ensure fair and equal treatment of providers and
integrity in public procurement, given that transparency in public procurement
bears an immediate cost for government and bidders. The recommendations
drawn from the research were that there should be promotion and enhancement
of transparency regarding preferential procurement policies, determinants, and
related information for the public and promotion of inclusion of new entrants in
the supplier value chain
Description
A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the master of business administration finance degree
Keywords
Procurement policy, Namibia, Public procurement, Supply chain