The Roles and Challenges of the Procurement Committee in Procuring School Assets. A Case of Chitungwiza District in Harare Metropolitan Province

Abstract

Effective procurement reforms play a strategic role in schools for prevention of mismanagement of resources. School procurement is crucial and it should be done effectively in order to achieve the goals of the school. Training procurement committees members effectively is a sure way that they will be able to work efficiently. Many schools have had challenges of procurement committee members who were characterised by fraud and corruption. Therefore, this study assessed the roles and challenges of the procurement committee in procuring school assets. The study drew on a purposive sample of 18 procurement committee members from the chosen five schools. Data was collected using questionnaires and interviews and was later presented in tables, pie charts and bar graphs. The results revealed that quite a number of procurement committee members lack enough knowledge on how to procure school assets, thus they need constant staff development on this aspect. Through this research it was noted that most school heads dominate the procurement processes through nepotism and corruption. They are said to take advantage of the fact that most procurement committee members are not learned of the procurement enactment. Both questionnaires and interviews uncovered that that the current economic meltdown in Zimbabwe thwarts procurement of assets since prices go up consistently. Bureaucracy was also noted to be a significant downside relating the procurement of school resources. Severe procurement laws such as imprisonment and dismissal were seen critical variables in improving moral practices in procuring school assets. The results also reveaved that procurement committee members need to be paid so that they will not swindle school finances. The study also recommended that laws that allow procurement to be done quickly before prices change when there is inflation were should be put in place.