New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has ordered a complete review of state purchasing laws and the public contracting processes, prompted by a report that showed one in five multimillion dollar purchases made by governments in New Jersey broke the law..
In the highest bracket of contracts, each worth $10 million annually or more, one in three broke the laws designed to make governments pick the fairest bids when spending taxpayer funds.
Prompted by The Record and Herald News report, Christie instructed the state treasurer to review how the state buys goods and services, find ways to eliminate accidental errors and prevent bid-rigging.
"You have to react to it," Christie said.
"I think part of it is that we have so much government," he said, referring to the hundreds of towns, agencies and authorities each purchasing goods and services. "We don't have enough people who are expert in this to do it the right way."
"I think a lot of it is negligence and not corruption. Some of it is corruption, but I think even more of it is negligence," he said.
The governor said he believed voters cared about contract fraud once they understand how it wastes revenues that would otherwise be spent to improve local conditions.
"It can be a very important issue if it becomes symbolic of people's frustration with government's inattentiveness, ineffectiveness," he said
Tanzania: Procurement Procedures Need a Touch of Professionalism
The latest move is a result of the audits conducted in 106 procument entities in the fiscal year of 2009/2010, of which 36 of them are MDAs, 51 are Public Authorities and 19 are Local Government Authorities (LGAs). The summons come hardly a month after Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda warned local government authorities and other public institutions engaged in procurement malpractices.
The Premier said the government will clamp down on malpractices found rampant in procurement and supplies departments adding that officials in those areas should be warned. He said that a recent procurement audit focusing on 174 procurement entities in ministries, regions, independent departments and agencies revealed that the level of compliance to the Public Procurement Act, 2004 was low, and only 68 per cent of them were given a clean bill of health.
He told them that 39 entities scored over 80 per cent, 115 scored between 50 and 80 per cent while 20 of them did not make it to 50 per cent. He said the areas where the entities performed poorly were procurement planning, establishment of a procurement monitoring unit, quality assurance, contract management as well as the publication of awards. "The report which also included value for money audits in 136 construction projects including 81 road projects, 33 building projects, 13 irrigation projects and seven bridge projects revealed that only 61 projects, representing 44.9 per cent, were implemented in adherence to the Law," he said.
He cited dubious transactions in some procurement entities where a total of 238.84 million shillings was paid for non-existing projects in Bahi, Geita, Magu, Mvomero and Sengerema. Mr Pinda said the Controller and Auditor General's reports on the other hand had unearthed huge losses the government incurs year after year through procurement.
Premier Pinda said the consequences of inefficiency and malpractices in procurement and materials management results into unnecessary government expenditure.
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