The government plans to apply new rules to the public procurement process with the intention of increasing efficiency and transparency, with one of the key points being to disqualify the lowest and highest bids from tenders.
The plan had been touched on earlier, but was confirmed yesterday by Prime Minister Robert Fico, who feels that selecting the lowest bid might not always be the best and that the system can still be abused by construction companies, for example.
Public authorities often have a problem with procurement, being forced to accept the lowest bid, which can often lead to inferior quality. Head of the Association of Towns and Villages, Jozef Dvonco, feels the same, saying that because companies often use the cheapest building materials, there are problems with maintenance or they soon have to be replaced and so the final cost of procurement is often higher.
The idea therefore has a lot of potential because it touches on other provided services, like translations, where national and local authorities have to pick the cheapest offer with the end result being badly written texts promoting the country with incorrect terminology and no proofreading, even though millions are spent on the actual printing.
So maybe the government has it right on this one, as cheapest is not always best, or to use a Slovak proverb “We are not so rich as to be able to afford cheap things”.
Exactly George – Complete specifications and their monitoring is the first and sigularly most important element in any contract – schoolboy stuff that seems to elude almost everyone involved with procurement in this country.
A principle reason for the waste and scams that seem to bother BnM so much is the continued practice of employing people, not for what they know but for who they know, hence the offices full of clueless public servants who, because the tiers of management above them were appointed by the same criteria, either don’t or can’t do their jobs yet keep their well paid “jobs for life”.
Another failing that I have outlined before is the “rule” of only using SK “approved providers” irrespective of what goods or services are required even when approaching the manufacturer direct can produce substantial savings – Zodiac rubber boats, Desk top PCs etc. etc.
As for the specific area of translations, proof reading etc. if some of the goobledegook presented locally for tourist information is anything to go by, they only employ people who use Google translate or learnt English reading labels in Tesco – Jacoobs English is better!!!!
But this should come as no suprise, I have met a “state registered translator” who can’t string more than four words together. I know of a small but important govt. department that suposedly provides specialist, English language support and training at professional level, yet prospective employees only have to pass a high school level exam which is adjudicated and marked by someone with the same, teenage qualification.
Proper and effective proof reading on any translation should be done by a native speaker of that language but that would mean employing foreigners and as I have mentioned before at least one university is replacing its qualified native speaking teachers with this new super Slovak breed of “Semi-Native Speakers” – maybe Jacoob is one? So BnM plans are doomed by the stupid practices already established.
Balderdash, hogwash and a touch of self interest in this article . If the procurement is set up correctly stating the type, make and quality materials to be used and it is fully monitored by an unbribed project manager, then I dont see what the problem is here to getting the work done, to the best quality for the lowest price ….
As for translations, well all the translations I have had done, many have had me rocking with laughter ….no matter what the price paid !