Governments should embrace a Contract Management Strategy

All this could be avoided by embracing a contract management strategy.

The Eastern Cape Government has recently been embroiled in many scandals surrounding poor service delivery, particularly in the Health Department. There have been reports of hospitals and clinics having a very small number of medical professionals – if any at all. This suggests poor staff management. The medical clinics and hospitals have also reported having no access to medication available – which translates to poor purchase and supply chain management.

This is a result of a long chain of bad management decisions – and it doesn’t end only in financial losses. The unfortunate fact is that many of our citizens are being affected negatively by insufficient health care. People are not getting the medication and medical help required for a healthy nation. Mismanagement of funds is not only in the health sector – children’s educational rights are being infringed upon as funds are being depleted by ghost teachers who are on the payroll.

Having this discussion with the Realyst team it was realized that the majority of the issues the departments are experienced could be resolved with a sound contract management solution. All at once, the government offices are managing and exceptional amount of people and resources – all this is a major task and there is constant risk of human error. A contract management solution would keep tabs on suppliers and resources, ensure deliverables are met and the records are all kept up to date and within standard requirements.

Despite the requirement for South African Government to have contract management solutions in place to manage public resources, there are still a large number of offices running without this valuable service. In Europe and other developed countries, Contract Management Software offered by companies such as Realyst train Contract Management officials and assist in the maintenance of contracts to ensure the right people are hired and the contracted suppliers are meeting required deliverables.

In conclusion, Government Department can not only have time for themselves and the people through using a contract management solution – they could potentially save billions of Rands. There will be no financial leakage or mismanagement of funds, the correct workers and professionals will be paid the right amounts and there will be no unnecessary spending on expired or ghost contracts.

Let’s hope more government offices will realise the need for an accurate system that will help management deliver a much needed service to its pubic.