GOOD GOVERNANCE: SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT REPORT: IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT REGULATIONS WITHIN THE PERIOD 01 JULY 2014 TO 30 JUNE 2015 (2014//2015 FINANCIAL YEAR) REPORT OF THE ACTING MUNICIPAL MANAGER 1. INTRODUCTION / BACKGROUND TO REPORT Regulation 6(1) of Supply chain management stipulates that Council of a Municipality and the board of directors of a Municipal entity must maintain oversight over the implementation of its supply chain management policy. Sub-section (2) of the regulations stipulates that for the purposes of such oversight, the Accounting Officer must in the case of a municipality, within 30 days of the end of each financial year, submit a report on the implementation of the supply chain management policy of the municipality and of any municipal entity under its sole or shared control, to the council of the municipality. 2. PURPOSE OF THE REPORT To report to Council about the implementation of supply chain management policy. The report entails: (a) (b) (c) Bid committees performance; Initiatives taken by management to address the challenges; Indicate the overall performance of supply chain management unit in the implementation of supply chain management regulations. 3. IDP LINK AND LOCATION Good governance. Mbombela Municipal area 4. MOTIVATIONS AND OPTIONS (DISCUSSION) Section 6(2) (a) (i) of the Supply Chain Management regulations 27636 dated 30 May 2005 requires the Accounting Officer to submit a report to Council pertaining the implementation of the Supply Chain Management policy as part of the Council`s oversight responsibilities. 4.1 Supply chain management unit The Accounting officer has as per section 7 of Supply chain management regulations established a supply chain management unit aimed at the implementation of its supply chain management policy. The unit is under the direct supervision of the Chief Financial Officer as required by sub section 3 of the Supply chain management regulations. The following sub-units were established within the Supply Chain Management Unit, i.e., Demand, Acquisition, Contract Management and Performance management.
4.1.1 Demand Management right The demand management system used is to ensure that the resources required to support the strategic and operational commitments of the Municipality are delivered at the correct time, at the right price and at the location. It is also to ensure that the quantity and quality satisfy the needs of the Municipality as required by regulation 10 of Supply Chain Management Regulations. 4.1.2 Acquisition Management Supply Chain Management policy has an effective system of acquisition Management to ensure that: a) Goods and services are procured by the municipality in accordance with authorised processes only; b) Expenditure on goods and services is incurred in terms of an approved budget in terms of Section 15 of the Act; c) The threshold values for the different procurement processes are complied with; d) Bid documentation, evaluation and adjudication criteria and general conditions of a contract, are in accordance with any applicable legislation; and; e) Any Treasury guidelines on acquisition management are properly taken into account 4.1.3 Contract Management of Council has effective system of contract management. Part of the functions contract Management system are that; a) administer all contracts entered into between Council and responsive bidders; b) facilitate the signing of the Service Level Agreements with all responsive and appointed bidders etc; However, the system is not watertight and needs to be improved. This is supported by the fact that, on multiyear projects, the system is not able to automatically effect the ten (10%) price escalation. The price escalation is manually effected which could create future financial accounting challenges. Supply Chain Management is in the process of benchmarking with other institutions to beef up the contract management system. 4.1.4 Performance Management System shortage Council had approved Performance Management policy system in 2011/2012 Financial. The effectiveness of the system was not put into test due to of human capital within Supply Chain Management. For instance, Supply Chain Management was not in a position to accurately account in terms of the performance of contractors and suppliers as it solely relied on the information provided by the project managers which may or may not be accurate. Issues, such as variation orders, price escalation and handling of contingency
fees remained the sole function of the project managers. Subsequently, it was resolved that this function should be transferred to Monitoring and Evaluation unit to implement. An official letter to that effect was sent to the Monitoring and Evaluation unit.to implement the resolution 4.1.5 Logistics Management System Council has effective logistic system in place. Council initially had three stores. They are situated in White River, Nelspruit and Malekutu. The Malekutu stores was then closed down due to the fact that it was no longer cost effective for Council. There was no value for money to keep it operative. Council currently keeps the stocks in both Nelspruit and White River stores. Institutions which come to Mbombela for benchmarking are always impressed With the effectiveness of the system 5. Training of supply chain management officials All officials in Supply Chain Management unit received training on the functioning of Supply Chain Management processes. Qualifications ranging from NQF level four (4) to level eight (8) training have been provided as follows: Table 1.1 NQF LEVEL NAME OF INSTITUTION Six (6) University of Pretoria and Witwatersrand Four (4) Pretoria University 6 Six (6) SAMDI 8 Six (6) PALAMA 8 NUMBER EMPLOYEES 3 OF 6. Supply chain management policy Supply Chain Management policy is revised and endorsed by Council in its Ordinary Council meeting held after the submission of annual reports. The three policies were not reviewed since 30 September 2013, however two additional policies namely, policy on the usage of external consultants and disallowed expenses were drafted to beef-up the Supply Chain Management policy. The policies shall be tabled before council in July 2014. 7. List of accredited prospective providers Supply chain management unit keeps the list of accredited prospective providers of goods and services that must be used for the procurement of the requirements of the municipality through written or verbal quotations and formal written price quotations as required by regulation14 of Supply Chain Management. Moreover, Council invites prospective providers of goods or services to apply for evaluation and listing as accredited prospective providers at least once a year through newspapers commonly circulating locally, the website of the municipality and short messages (SMSs).
Council clearly specifies the listing criteria for accredited prospective providers It also disallows the listing of prospective providers whose names appear on the National Treasury s database of persons prohibited from doing business with the public sector as required by regulation 14 of Supply Chain Management. The list is updated on daily basis when the need arises. For instance, the procurement system used is designed such that if the tax clearance certificate of a service provider expires it becomes impossible to transect with that company. In other words the system makes the service provider inactive. It is only after the updating of the document that the prospective bidder becomes active in the list. The list is compiled per commodity and per type of service as required by regulation 14(3) of Supply Chain Management. However, most of service providers choose all the commodities listed in the database application form which makes it difficult for Supply Chain Management to choose the correct commodities for those. This challenge is experienced mostly in small and newly established companies. Supply Chain Management believes that the ongoing suppliers education programmes undertaken by Council on quarterly basis shall assist in educating small businesses in registering for proper categories where they have capacity. Furthermore, Council vets all prospective service providers before they get listed in the Suppliers database. Prospective providers who fails the vetting are advised in terms of what they need to do in order to qualify for listing in Supply Chain Management database. In addition, Supply Chain Management unit regularly convenes Suppliers forum meeting at which it explains amongst others the requirements for suppliers to be listed in the datase of the Municipality and some other related concerns which cost Council a desirable clean audit opinions: rendering services without official orders, services rendered by prospective suppliers who are owned by people who are in the service of the state, services rendered by suppliers who are either in the process of deregistration or already deregistered due to one reason or the other etc. The last Suppliers forum meeting convened was on the 14 th of April 2015. The meeting was well attended. Supply Chain Management had clearly and explicitly indicated that Suppliers who are instructed to render a specific services should request the project manager or whoever issues the instructions to give her the official order first before the instructions could be carried out. In the event the Suppliers render the services without official orders, Council shall not be liable for payment. They were strongly warned against the above. Linked to the above, Council had on the 30 th of June 2015, issued a circular in which it warns officials and departments against deviating from normal bidding processes or running their own Supply Chain Management units. Simply put, departments were warned against sourcing their own quotations without the knowledge or involvement of Supply Chain Management practitioners, instructing service providers to render the services without
having received official orders and procuring goods and services without verifying if there is sufficient budget for the required services as they all constitute irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure. 8. Appointment of bid committees The Accounting Officer had as per section 26 of supply chain management regulations appointed: (i) (ii) (iii) bid specification committee; bid evaluation committee; and bid adjudication committee Their functions are consistent with regulation 27, 28, and 29 of Supply Chain Management. Two training workshops were conducted to equip the committee members in terms of what is expected of them. The training workshops were conducted on the 25 th of July 2014 and 30 th of June 2015. Supply Chain Management is pleased to mention that all bid committees performed exceptionally very well in 2014/2015 financial year as indicated in the Supply Chain Management fourth quarter report submitted to the Office of the Executive Mayor on the 14 th of July 2015 as required by regulation 6(3) of Supply Chain Management regulations. This amongst other is grounded on the fact that Council doesn t have a backlog of tenders or projects which need to be finalized within specific period which is one of the issues which characterized bid adjudication committees in particular in the previous financial years. There was a general sense of commitment to all bid adjudication committee members to bid adjudication committee s functions. This could be noted by the fact that, when they gather at the bid adjudication committee meeting, they made it a point that all items that are in the agenda were finalized with the exception of those that had glaring challenges which they referred to bid evaluation committee for re-consideration. They all attended bid adjudication committee meetings in particular irrespective of the items which were in the agenda, unlike in the previous years where most of bid adjudication committee members attended the bid committee meetings if and only if some of the projects were within their individual departments. Supply Chain Management is tempted to mention that the bid adjudication committee appointed in 2014/2015 financial year performed far much better than any other bid adjudication committee appointed in the history of Mbombela local municipality. This amongst others could be attributed to the fact that honouring the bid committee schedule forms part of their contracts and the professional support Supply Chain Management consistently receive from Municipal Manager and the Chief Financial Officer. Furthermore, Municipal Manager had on the 30 th of June 2015 appointed two teams of bid Specification Committee, four teams of bid evaluation committee and one team of bid adjudication committee. Their functions are consistent with regulation 27, 28 and 29 of Supply Chain Management as indicated above. The primary aim of this approach is to fast-track service delivery within the communities.
Coupling this approach is the approval of financial delegations and Supply Chain Management financial delegations to different officials. This as well shall to a greater extent expedite service delivery in a sense that none of the departments failure to perform shall be attributed either to the Supply Chain management processes or the Municipal Manager as it used to be the case. Supply Chain Management is confident that the above innovations shall assist in expediting service delivery to communities. 9. Reports to Executive Mayor. Supply Chain Management had within ten (10) days of the end of each quarter, submitted reports on the implementation of the Supply Chain Management policy to the Executive Mayor as required by regulation 6(3) of Supply Chain Management and policy of Mbombela local Municipality. Included in the reports amongst others are: i. awarded bids ranging from R 30 000.00 and above inclusive of VAT; ii. all goods and services procured outside the normal bidding processes; iii. iv. irregular expenditure incurred within each quarter; deviations and irregular expenditure were all referred to internal audit unit on time; Supply Chain Management noted that the rate of deviations from normal bidding processes is at an unacceptable level. The principal drivers of the deviations were: fleet management, electrical engineering and water and sanitation and legal services. However, the rate of deviations is expected to drastically drop with effect from the first quarter of 2015/2016 financial year. This is grounded on the fact that Council has on the 18 of July 2015 awarded a three year contract to two service providers on electrical repairs maintenance and protection. This contract is extended to all departments which may need services on electrical related challenges. Moreover, Council at the same meeting held on the 18 th of June 2015 awarded a three year contract on the fleet repairs and maintenance. contract deviations Furthermore, Council had on the 16 th of July 2015 awarded a three year on maintenance of all Council owned buildings within Mbombela jurisdictions. This is a great achievements as they shall go a long way in alleviating from normal bidding processes. and department The area which has not yet been finalized which causes deviations is in Water Sanitation department. The department like all others does not have maintenance plans. Supply chain management unit is in the process of assisting the to have a maintenance contract to alleviate the deviations from normal bidding processes. Supply Chain Management is tempted to point out that the appointment of Municipal Manager and Chief Financial Officer had drastically turned the institutions in the right direction. This amongst others is based on the fact that they are not scared to take decisions and sign the documentations based on the advises given to them as opposed to the periods when some were serving as acting Chief Financial Officer and Acting Municipal Manager.
Officials who act in certain positions are generally hesitant or reluctant to take decisions on critical issues which has a negative bearing on the performance of the institution. 10. Electronic procurement system (INTENDA Solution suite) Supply chain management had with effect from the 1 st of July 2012 introduced and implemented electronic procurement system known as INTENDA Solution suite. INTENDA Solution suite consultant is on-site to ensure a smooth phasing in of all modules of the system as per Council s requirements. All departments were trained in the usage of the INTENDA Solution suite. Training was limited to administrators and immediate supervisors or managers to request and approve the procurement of goods and services depending to the financial delegations. There is smooth interface between INTENDA Solution suite and VENUS system. It be noted that Council had since its implementation been using the open quote module. This in practice allows users to source and provide quotations to supply chain management unit to process the procurement which made it difficult if not impossible to rotate service providers as required by supply chain management regulations and policy of Mbombela local municipality. The on-site consultant generated monthly reports in terms of the functioning of the system which were incorporated in the Supply Chain Management quarterly and Supply Chain Management annual reports to the Office of the Executive Mayor to exercise oversight role as required by regulation (6) (2) and 6 (3) of Supply Chain Management.. 11. Delays in payment of appointed service providers Payment of appointed service providers had been a challenge within the institution. The delay is attributed largely to the fact that: i. despite the fact that Council indicates on the official orders that invoices have to be submitted at the identified creditors office, there are still service providers who submit them to the project managers who in most instances either misplace or forget to submit them on time to kick start the process of payment; ii. project managers instructs the poor and desperate service providers to render the service without official orders; iii. financial cash flow of the institution caused by insufficient or drop in revenue collection; iv. Failure to adhere to normal procurement processes as required by supply chain management regulations.
11.1 To alleviate the above: (i) Supply chain management convenes suppliers forum meetings on quarterly basis at which service providers are informed not only of the central place for invoices but also the fact that they irrespective of how desperate they might be, refuse to render any service before the official orders could be issued. (ii) Service providers should also be trained in terms of bidding processes which includes requirements for responsive and acceptable bids; (iii) Council should refuse to pay service providers if supply chain management processes were not adhered to; (iv) advertise on quarterly basis in the locally circulating newspapers that service providers should not render any service without having received an official order; (v) Officials who instruct them (service providers) to render services before the official orders are issued should be made to pay them out of their own individual coffers. RECOMMENDATION BY THE ACTING MUNICIPAL MANAGER THAT (a) The report be noted