Wed, 11 Jan 2017 11:18:37 +0000 THE manner in which tenders have been floated and contracts awarded for the publication of school text books to publishers by the Ministry of General Education has always raised concerns from the stakeholders and the nation at large. There has been an outcry from the local publishers that the centralised procurement system, and not the decentralised system, adopted by the Ministry of General Education favours a selected few foreign publishers. These companies were strategically registered with the Patent and Companies Agency (PACRA) with the sole purpose of putting local private publishing houses at a disadvantage. Previously, the Ministry justified their action of not awarding tenders to local companies by citing lack of capacity to compete with other publishers to produce books. We do not think the explanation given by the Ministry is true. There must be something sinister with the manner in which the whole tendering procedure is […]
