The Kenya Institute of Supplies Management has launched its seventh regional chapter in Nyeri County with a clarion call to procurement and supply chain management practitioners to get enlisted with the professional body.

According to KISM Council Member, Fidel Muema, despite having more than 34,000 public institutions, the professional body has only 23,000 in its membership roll. Out of this, Muema says that only 10,000 are active members, something that has set off the alarm bells for the body which is charged with the mandate of registering and licensing procurement professionals.

‘We have over 13,000 members who are not active yet when you look at the Public Procurements Regulatory Authority (PPRA), we have 34,000 public institutions. This is a big concern and that is why we are saying we will make amendments to the registration process to ensure that all people who are practicing procurement are licensed and registered by KISM,’ said Muema.

The Council Member was speaking at a Nyeri Hotel during the o
perationalization of KISM Mt. Kenya Chapter. Other chapters that have been established include Coast, South Rift, North Rift, Central Rift, Nyanza Region and Western Region chapters. He said that the KISM is planning to commission a total of nine regional chapters in order to bring KISM services closer to counties.

Muema also revealed that the governing council will soon be reining in on quacks in its bid to redeem the image of the profession. Muema said that KISM is in the process of entering into strategic partnerships with oversight bodies namely Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, PPRA and the Office of the Auditor General to help the governing council weed out frauds from the procurement practice.

‘We have a disciplinary committee that is currently handling three cases relating to economic crimes and professional misconduct. Enforcement and compliance has been a big issue because there are people who are in the offices performing our duties but they are not procurement professionals,’ said Muema.

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The council has agreed that we will issue a notice to these people to register. We will have to do what is right for the profession, which is to remove the people who are not supposed to be there,’ said the Council Member.

On the issue of Recognition of Prior Learning as a way of bringing on board professionals who had been practicing long before the Supplies Practitioners Management Act of 2007, Muema said that the council is working on modalities which will see those practicing without the requisite academic qualifications being certified. He noted that the governing council has resolved to subject the associate members to an exam to assess their suitability before they are given an operating license.

‘We must appreciate that the procurement profession was not recognized up until around the year 2004. But we have had people who started procurement long before then and they are almost retiring. We came up with the RPL policy which was passed by the Cabinet. With this policy, one will be subjected to an exa
m and they are issued with a certificate and the authority to practice because most of the practitioners have been associate members for so long,’ he said.

‘The Institute has operationalized and established regional chapters to make our services accessible at the regional level as required by Constitution of Kenya 2010.A policy document was passed allowing us to establish regional chapters that will have a leadership and members who will be drawn from that particular region,’ he stated.

Source: Kenya News Agency