Procurement authority challenges SMEs on public contracts

Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Authority has challenged small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to get organised to reap benefits from government’s policy of awarding 60 percent of public procurement to black indigenous Malawians.

The authority made the call was made on Saturday in Lilongwe during the first ever annual general meeting of the Chamber for Small and Medium Businesses Association.

Section 44 of Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Act stipulates that 60 percent of contracts under the national competitive bidding should be awarded to indigenous black Malawians and the rest to others.

The authority’s director general Elias Hausi said apart from the capacity to deliver the goods and services on time, government also looks at quality of the goods and services.

He said: “The message is that if SMEs want to participate fully, this is the time to position themselves.

“Time for going it alone is gone because to do business with government or parastatals requires adequate capital and expertise.”

Hausi said the authority is there to build capacity of SMEs to succeed in public procurements.

On her part, Chamber for Small and Medium Businesses Association vice-president Barbara Banda commended Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Authority for challenging SMEs to be ready for business opportunities ahead.

Ministry of Labour Principal Secretary Dickson Chunga said SMEs are key to the government’s agenda of the creation of one million jobs in a year.

“Government is keen to link organised SMEs with financiers to solve capital requirement issues which remain a challenge to majority of them,” he said.