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CHAPTER 3
THE PLANNING, ORGANISING, LEADING AND CONTROL OF PROCUREMENT
achieve the company goals. The identified procurement activities ought to
be further broken down into specific tasks to be accomplished by specific
staff members in the department.
• Classifying activities
– It is important that a duplication of activities by
different departments in the same organisation be avoided. Duplication
of activities can be costly and is a recipe for inter-departmental conflict. It
is therefore necessary for the procurement department to identify related
procurement activities and to prevent such duplication.
• Allocating staff
– Once divisions or sections have been established in a
procurement department, the next step is to identify the number of staff
members required, together with the skills they need to possess.
• Assigning authority and responsibility
– After allocating staff members to
their respective divisions, the procurement managers ought to assign authority
and responsibilities to each divisional office. At this stage, the duties of each
staff member should be clearly spelt out in order to foster co-operation among
staff members. Conflicts that might tear apart the department may arise if the
assigned authority and responsibilities are not clearly set out.
• Facilitating work
– When all the structures of the procurement department
have been established, the management of the department should facilitate
work by ensuring that the staff members are informed of work methods, so
that the procurement plans are carried out properly and timeously.
3.3.2 BASIC PRINCIPLES OF ORGANISING FOR PROCUREMENT
Certain principles affect or may come into play when organising procurement.
3.3.2.1 The Co-ordination Principle
Co-ordination refers to the synchronisation and integration of procurement
activities, responsibilities, and command and control structures to ensure that the
resources of a company are used most efficiently in the pursuit of procurement
objectives. The co-ordination principle requires procurement managers to define
the chain of command, unity of command and extent of control. The chain of
command refers to the line of authority that stretches from the top leadership to
the lower ranks of the organisation. The unity of command refers to the notion
that each employee should answer to only one immediate superior, while extent
of control refers to the number of employees directly reporting to a procurement
manager.
3.3.2.2 The Authority Principle
Authority is the power or right to give orders, make decisions, enforce
obedience and use resources. However, the power wielded also depends on
how the procurement department is structured. In other words, it determines