NMB Bank chief executive rots for ethical procurement

Chief Executive Officer of NMB Bank Plc., Ruth Zaipuna speaking during a recent interview with The Citizen in her office.

By The Citizen Reporter

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Arusha. The growing importance of procurement and supply in the day-to-day manning of companies and the government calls for professionals in the area to

exercise high levels of integrity, the Chief Executive Officer of the NMB Bank, Ms Ruth Zaipuna, has said.

Gracing the inaugural annual general meeting (AGM) for the Association of Procurement and Supplies Professionals (APSP) here on Tuesday, Ms Zaipuna urged members to shun corruption and strive for accountability and transparency in their undertakings.

She said ethical purchasing practices and innovative supply chain solutions were crucial for the profession to deliver the requisite value for money. She said recent legal and regulatory changes have uplifted the organisational status of the profession to new heights.

Procurement of goods and services accounts for the lion’s share of the government’s development budgets and spending of private sector entities.

The association’s chair, Mr Emmanuel Urembo, put the relevance and importance of the profession in development into proper perspective by revealing that procurement of goods and services account for about 70 percent of government budgets and development related spending of private sector entities. Therefore, the formation of APSP and the procurement and supply management professional in general make a lot of business and economic development sense, he emphasised. Ms Zaipuna reminded the procurement and supplies managers to strike a fair balance between business success and what professional ethics and guidelines of the procurement law requires them to adhere to.

Ms Zaipuna applauded APSP members for embracing the bank’s bancassurance group funeral package en masse saying there are many other innovative solutions such as the “spend to save” product and the popular NMB Dunduliza health insurance service. The AGM was also attended by the new head of the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority,, Dr Irene Isaka.

, who said her open door policy leadership style means working closely with all professional stakeholders.