By ALICE NACHILEMBE
Copperbelt PF Provincial Chairman Nathan Chanda has advised Mopani Copper Mines and Glencore to rescind and cancel it procurement process of putting most of their goods on contract through a number of tenders.
Mr Chanda said the Procurement process will disadvantage small scale businesses on the Copperbelt that depend on the mining giant.
He said Glencore wants to reduce their cost of doing business but it must not be at the expense of the local small scale suppliers, families and the government treasury.
“We are aware that Glencore via their procurement office in Melrose South Africa are in a hurry of putting most of their goods on contract through a number of tenders that they have sent on the market to both foreign and local suppliers. We are also aware that this process started at the time when government wanted to introduce Sales Tax so as a way of evading this tax. They then, came up with a plan of putting most of their goods on contract through importation mostly goods from South Africa.
“As a party, we feel this move should be stopped because it is meant to disadvantage our people. This should not and will never be allowed. We therefore, appeal that this thought should be perished,” he said.
Mr Chanda said the current normal procurement strategy at Mopani is that of competitive buying which allows all players to compete on the same products without having to award or lock a particular contract to only one company.
He said a senior person has been employed to expedite this process and more are still being to coordinate with the procurement office in Melrose.
