Centralizing Government Procurement

We’ve been reading recently about the huge sums of money spent by different cabinet Ministers in President Zuma’s government on luxury vehicles. Two points need to be made on this matter, the first point is that we seem to only read about the cabinet Ministers, but what about Deputy Minsters Provincial Premiers, Provincial MEC’s and the Mayors? The second and most critical point to be made on this matter is one relating to centralized procurement. President Zuma ought to effect a policy where the procurement of vehicles for all government officials (not just pool cars) is centralized such that one government unit is tasked with negotiating the price of vehicles and procures such vehicles in bulk. It would appear from the reports we read in the media that each Minister seems to have made his/her own arrangements regarding the type of car and the car specifications. Imagine the savings government would achieve on bulk purchasing of cars for all senior government officials, across all levels of government. Of course this idea of centralized procurement ought to be considered and applied across other services which government utilises from time to time such as mobile telecommunication services, air travel services etc. This is by no means to say I want the lowest quality for our government officials, I simply want the best service at the lowest price possible and this can only be achieved through a centralised procurement regime.