Finance and Economic Opportunities

I have been advised of the following:

3.

(a) The effective and efficient management of provincial supply chains is only one element of the various inputs required to ensure effective service delivery to citizens. These inputs are coordinated and managed by individual service delivery departments in producing their outputs and service delivery outcomes, as articulated in the Annual Performance Plans and measured in their Annual Reports.

The measurement of the Western Cape Government’s Supply Chain Management (SCM) Strategy is undertaken in terms of the components of the strategy itself, and at a transversal level. The SCM Strategy has four components, namely: governance (policy and control); capacitation and development (organisation structure, capacity, skill); SCM technology (reporting and data technology) and strategic procurement.

Service delivery impact and the measurement thereof is an evolving process as we move toward improvement of data and information management as well as analysing and consolidating financial and non- financial information. Currently, progress with the execution of the SCM Strategy is measured through regular monthly reporting from procuring entities, systems data analysis and quarterly integrated insights reporting back to procuring entities, and increasingly through public disclosure reporting through the quarterly Procurement Disclosure Reports that were initiated as part of the COVID-19 disaster response. Our quarterly Client Support Performance Reports also enable us to reflect on our performance and to look at continuous improvements periodically.

(b)

1. The strategy is reviewed quarterly through our analysis and reporting mechanisms and annually through our strategic planning processes within the department.
2. The broad SCM Strategy has been in place since 2009. Annual and quarterly reviews have reaffirmed and recalibrated it over time. A Problem Driven Iterative Adaptation (PDIA) methodology is currently being implemented to assess the efficacy of the strategy and recalibrate both the strategy and individual activities.

(c) The strategy remains dynamic and will be amended if there are significant changes to the economic and regulatory context, and if the various assessment processes find that it does not respond to service delivery needs.

(d) The SCM Strategy:

• • Sustains a resilient good governance platform that includes appropriate surveillance and transparency mechanisms in provincial procurement processes;
  • Focuses on continuous service delivery improvement through client support and supplier management services;
  • Accelerates the ease of doing business with Western Cape Government by reducing red tape and improving access to Provincial procurement opportunities;
  • Utilises technology as an enabler to improve SCM and asset management capability maturity and performance; and
  • Adopts an agile and adaptive response mechanism that provides the levels of innovative thinking required to position SCM reform over time.

 

(e) For our departments, this makes it easier to comply with legislation, improve productivity and reduce paperwork. It also strengthens transparency and curbs opportunities for irregularities, fraud and collusion between suppliers and officials by providing a clear audit trail.

 

For our suppliers, this provides procurement opportunities to more businesses, stimulating competition. It also gives effect to our core growth for jobs priority by making it easier to do business in the Western Cape Government.

In essence it provides for:

• an electronic platform that is traditionally a 3-quote system  utilised in all spheres of government;
• It widens the scope of opportunities as any supplier registered on the system for the commodity can tender, thereby stimulating more competition;
• It rationalises 3 bid documents into one (WCBD 4), which is managed and maintained annually, and bidders need only submit this once annually to tender with the WCG. This WCBD 4 is utilised for any tender for all 13 provincial departments during the year, thereby significantly reducing red tape and waste in the procurement process; and
• efficient and credible procurement reporting making it easier to report of service delivery impact as procurement processes are in the norm manual, cumbersome and requires significant outlay of resources to consolidate all information sets in order to measure and manage performance and impact on service delivery.