We posted yesterday (http://tinyurl.com/ok6h7cq) on issues around social procurement, the Social Value Act 2012 in the UK and the need for grass roots supplier led innovation to meet the top-down approach.
Here is how it is done the Kenyan way. To borrow a quote from the film “Robots” (my boys’ favourite) their motto appears to be the simple approach of “See a need, fill a need”.
The Public Procurement Disposal and Amendment Regulations 2013 come right to the point:
“A procuring entity shall allocate at least thirty percent of its procurement spend for the purposes procuring goods, works and services from micro and small enterprises owned by youth, women and persons with disability,” said the National Treasury Secretary Henry Rotich.
And it doesn’t stop there:
“Overall, preference will be given to Kenyan firms offering motor vehicles or equipment that are assembled locally, construction material and other material used in the transmission and conduction of electricity of which such material is made locally and furniture, textiles, foodstuffs and other goods made or locally available in Kenya.”
Procuring authorities will be required to assist with the financing of SME’s and other identified minority supplier groups by authenticating their purchase orders (effectively a form of secondary guarantee or security).
Is this kind of initiative latent in the EU and the UK? And would it spring forward in the wake of reforms which recognised the legitimate social, economic and environmental components of the “Most Economically Advantageous” formulation?
Clearly innovation is afoot (http://tinyurl.com/nnmhl6w) in the UK to grasp at the straws proffered by the Social Value Act, but can’t we all do better?
The full article on the procurement regulation changes in Kenya which came into force on 18 June is here, courtesy of Daily Nation:
