Delegation

Majdy Salameh Wednesday 22 March 2017

The cost of 900 managers exceeds 147 billion pounds annually

"Supplier Register" ... the royal door to unlawful wealth ... and gifts, the name "al-Dalaa" for bribes

 

Over the decades and years, a long list of professions became known to many who are notorious ... Once someone joins them, they are surrounded by suspicions, chased by rumors, and they become accused in the eyes of many, no matter how innocent, honorable, saint and loyal.

The list of these professions included nurses, secretaries, hairdressers, tax officers, local engineers and store managers .. Recently, a new profession joined the same list, which is the profession of "purchasing manager".

The last of the notorious professions cluster in the government and the business sector employs 900 procurement managers, who deal in 147 billion and 163 million pounds per year. Experts have identified 4 reasons for their fall into the network of corruption, on top of which are their meager salaries and their great powers in dealing with hundreds of millions of pounds annually .

When “Ahmed Gamal Al-Labban”, Director of the Procurement Department at the State Council, was arrested on charges of receiving 150 million pounds as a bribe, the administrative control found in his house 24 million Egyptian pounds, 4 million US dollars, 2 million euros, 1 million Saudi riyals, and a large amount of gold jewelry Other than the real estate and cars that he owns.

At that time, some said that "frankincense" kept a full bank in his home, but many believed that "frankincense" was an exceptional case in the world of "purchasing managers".

Only a few days passed from that incident, and Administrative Control (A.A.) seized the Director of Procurement at the Ministry of Planning after he received one million and 300 thousand pounds as a bribe from one of the companies that supplied computers, electronic equipment and cables to the Ministry of Planning!

According to the administrative control, the bribery was in return for leaking information on the offers of competing companies, and facilitating the disbursement of financial extracts, whose value exceeds 100 million pounds, which affects the competitiveness of bids and leads to the Ministry obtaining devices and equipment at exaggerated prices.

The repetition of millions of bribes to a purchasing manager has only one meaning, which is that "there is something wrong" in this position, and this mistake is what I went looking for and searching his secrets.

The first thing that stops in the position of procurement manager is that, there are not many conditions for occupying this position. Only obtaining a Bachelor of Commerce is sufficient. (Note to join the College of Commerce is available for those who obtain between 70% and 801 TP1T in high school and their numbers in the hundreds of thousands annually).

Anyone who reads the advertisements for the position of a procurement manager in any government agency or business sector will not find in them a requirement for distinguished capabilities or knowledge, as most of these conditions are limited to experience in procurement for a period of not less than ten years at least, then high skill in negotiation and mastery of the Arabic language Fluent in speaking and writing, it is preferable for someone who speaks very good English with good skill in using the computer and a high proficiency in the use of automated accounting systems and the ability to withstand work pressure and finally comes accuracy, honesty, innovation, and high skills in dealing with others.

It is clear that all these skills are available in millions of Egyptians, and in front of these large numbers that can perform this job, the number of procurement managers in the government sector and the business sector does not exceed 900 procurement managers, of whom 700 in the state’s administrative apparatus are more than 200 purchasing managers in the business sector - according to the doctor’s estimates. Abdel Fattah Ismail - Director of the Center for Economic and Legal Studies, pointing out that this small number of procurement managers deal in amounts that in the current state budget reached 147 billion and 12 million pounds, which means that each procurement manager deals on average in the amount of 163 million and 347 thousand pounds, From these sums, he is responsible for providing the requests of the entity for which he works at the cheapest prices and with the best specifications, and he is also responsible for planning and preparing the implementation programs for procurement to achieve the objectives of the organization, while planning to provide the needs through the suppliers accredited to the company who are registered with the institution, and to evaluate and approve them with the issuance of a registration record for suppliers clarifying It contains all the supplier data and the constant search for new suppliers to reach the lowest prices, which ultimately works in the interest of the institution in which he works.

He adds: «The Procurement Department is the only authority responsible for signing and concluding the purchase contracts, and for managing the financial resources allocated for the purchase in the institution’s budget and planning for inventory in terms of determining its various levels and for managing and utilizing production waste. It is also responsible for continuing relations with suppliers, and the procurement manager is responsible Also on the proper planning and auditing of the various procurement activities, preparing the estimated budgets, carrying out the studies and research necessary to raise the level of performance, efficiency and effectiveness of the company’s process, reviewing the specifications and characteristics of the materials required from other departments.

Dr. Walaa Abdul Karim, director of the Partners for Transparency Foundation, is that the spread of corruption among procurement managers is a very natural thing - as he described it ... and he said there are 4 reasons behind the procurement managers falling into the bribe net, the first of which is that the procurement manager is originally a "Ghalban" employee whose salary is limited But he deals in tens and perhaps hundreds of millions of pounds annually, and this disparity between the salary and the sums he works in opens all the doors of evil to the purchasing managers .. The second reason is that the mechanisms for monitoring the work of the procurement managers are almost non-existent, which means that he can do What seemed to him, it is true that there are committees that are formed, to decide on offers and bids, and to award bids, but all of these committees are in reality mock committees, and sometimes these committees are only held on paper, and they do not actually convene, and even if they are held, the procurement manager is in most Sometimes he is the true ruler of it, and he is the director of all matters within it.

The third reason - and the director of the Partners Center for Transparency is still talking - is the tendering and auctions laws, which are full of loopholes, which allow manipulation and passing of suspicious deals .. And the fourth reason is that the law grants procurement managers great powers that enable them to deal with specific suppliers and exclude whatever they want from Mourad, a business that opens all doors to corruption.

A procurement manager in one of the economic ministries - who requested anonymity - revealed that the most dangerous thing that opens the causes of corruption is the suppliers ’register .. and says:“ Registration in the supplier’s records opens the widest doors for business and profit, and because registration in these registers requires long experience and previous work, and because there are many Those who want to get rich quickly, who do not have any experience or previous work, want to enter the world of supply to government agencies, they are ready to do everything and anything to register them in those records, and the first thing they can do is present gifts in the millions, and they call them gifts - as a name Dala - despite It's actually bribes. ”

To face this dangerous reality, Dr. Walaa Abdel Karim - Director of the Partners for Transparency Center - called for the formation of a single institution that enjoys complete transparency and takes on the role that the procurement departments play in all government agencies .. And he said: “In the United States there is a body called the Government Procurement Authority, It enjoys absolute transparency and is responsible for all government purchases. We need in Egypt to form such a body to completely eliminate any corruption that may infiltrate the procurement departments in all government sectors, which will save billions of pounds annually.