Fri, 28 Apr 2017 09:36:19 +0000
…as Kenyan company wins $3.4m Govt book procurement
By SANDRA MACHIMA
Zambian publishers have been angered by the award of yet another textbook tender worth US$3, 457,000 to a newly registered foreign company.
Grey Matter which is believed to be Kenya, but registered in Zambia has been awarded 23 of the 35 books that were floated recently.
Only one Zambian publishing company Mwajionera has been awarded one bid.
But Zambian publishers have observed that the Ministry of General Education last year awarded a Ugandan company the bulk of books tendered amid controversy and outcry. Most of the books have been rejected because they were unsuitable.
They feel that Government must intervene because it had a duty to nurture and encourage local publishing rather than preside over an environment where more Zambian publishers went under due to lack of business which was going to foreign companies.
Now MK Publishers, has been sidelined in preference to Grey Matter Zambia Limited who are believed to represent Longhorn Publishers of Kenya, and was registered in Zambia just a few days before the Phase 1 tender closed.
This has raised eyebrows of local bidders who recalled that the Parliamentary Committee on Education had in September 2015 recommended that the Ministry of General Education revert back to decentralized system of book procurement.
It was found that Zambia was losing about US $20 million paid to foreign companies registered in Zambia at the expense of the local publishers.
Local publishers have cried foul over the Grey Matter Zambia award, saying they want to know the criteria used for the ministry to have allowed the procurement to proceed in this manner as the user department should be the final decision makers.
A number of local publishers sidelined by the procurement in the last two years have since closed down, leading to loss of jobs in the local book industry.
But the Ministry of General Education’s head of procurement and supplier unit Jacob Masatunya explained to the Daily Nation that with the coming of the new curriculum, various stakeholders, among them book publishers and the Curriculum Development Centre, agreed on the development of a new book syllabus and its content.
Mr Masatunya said there was no provision that barred other publishers to bid for tender in the education sector provided they were registered in Zambia and fulfilled requirements of the Book Publishing Association, the Zambia Public Procurement Authority, PACRA and the Zambia Revenue Authority for them to qualify.
Mr Masatunya said his office had about 98 lots of subjects that required the bidders’ participation, saying tenders depended on the number of books publishers had provided.
He said the ministry made it mandatory that bidders should be registered, adding that book publishing needed eligibility because it was in the public domain that runs for more than a month to ensure everyone participated.
“We give ample time to all the bidders to participate and after a public closure, all the publishers are invited to attend, where announcement for prices, slots, names among other things, are made before they proceed to another stage,” he said.
Mr Masatunya said the World Bank had developed a standardized document under ZPPA on textbook procurement, which was used to procure books, as opposed to the framework that was not approved when the book was not on the market.
Mr Masatunya said it was possible for the local publishers to get the contracts provided they could meet the demand, and he also encouraged book publishers to work as a team if they were to achieve the desired results.
The tender had a total number of nine bidders – all with approved titles for Grade 3, 7 and 12, and only four publishers that were awarded the tender.
According to information obtained by the Daily Nation, Grey Matter Zambia was the best evaluated bidder, followed by Book World, Longman and Mwajionera respectively.
And Mk Publishers, Oxford, Book Hut, East African Publishers and Maiden were among other publishers that had their books approved but lost the bid.
The ministry now appeared to have defied calls by cooperating partners, schools, the local book publishers association, and NGOs in the education sector to revert to the old system that had accommodated nearly everyone.
