- Procurement fraud in developing countries.
According to transparency international (2006) unethical code of conduct including corruption, embezzlement, and fraud is high in developing countries and countries in east and west Africa have one of the highest levels of corruption and fraud in the world, though countries like Singapore and china also experienced high levels of fraud especially in early nineties in procurement Singapore in particular has reduced significantly and is arguably one of the least corrupt in the world this is mainly attributed to the harsh punishment given to the culprits in Singapore and above all the government commitment in fighting the vice and likewise china’s score in fraud has reduced significantly over the past decades. According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (2009) procurement fraud is done through falsification of documents, non-delivery of services that are paid for, inflation of procurement prices and presentation of personal procurement expenses as business expenses. The association notes that procedures, rules and regulations are ignored and that some procurement officers double in initiating procurement and supplier selection as well as initiating procurement vouchers, all of which are acts that perpetuate fraud. Suppliers have business links with company employees and yet others use their relatives to supply goods and services at inflated prices.
1.3 Information and Communication Technology adoption in developing countries
There are currently 1.2 billion people living under one dollar a day of which 70% are located in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia. The two poorest regions of the world are also those with the lowest access to ICT, the business activities in these regions are also marred by corruption, fraud and as a result investors are reluctant to invest in these regions which have even worsened the situation of unemployment especially in the age bracket between 23 to 35 years. The gap in access to and use of ICT the so called digital divide often follows and reinforces existing inequality and poverty pattern. The digital divide has emerged both with in countries , where the rich educated and young (often males) are most likely to use ICT and between developed and developing countries, for example in march 2000 out of the 304 million people with internet access only 2.6 million were in Africa while 137 were located in the united states and Canada. By way of another illustration, the average OECD country has 11 times the per capita income of south Asian country but 40 times as many computers. (World Bank, 2004)
Overall research has concluded that developing countries benefit from ICT is more likely to accrue from consumption rather than production and it may take developing countries long to benefit fully from the information and communication technology which among many things has increased transparency in terms of reducing fraud in the business process, accelerated business activities , timely information sharing, and reduced barriers in doing business, (kraemer, 2004).
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM.
The NSSF is a national savings scheme mandated by government through the NSSF Fund Act, cap 222 to provide social services to employees in Uganda, established by an act of parliament in 1985 (NSSF Records 2010). NSSF uses E-procurement for contracts to achieve benefits such as increased efficiency, cost savings , improved transparency in procurement services , Despite this benefits, it is faced with numerous procurement challenges in the 2008 acquisition of 564 acre piece of land at 11 billion shillings NSSF was accused of procurement fraud due to failure to advertise procurement of that value,( New Vision 27 October 2008) , Apart from that the PPDA audit report 2012 also questions a number of procurement activities at NSSF including the contract for the supply of fumigation services in which it was marred by irregularities. All these irregularities happen despite the existence of ICT systems at NSSF, This study questions the impact of information and communications technology (ICT) on procurement fraud with case study of NSSF located at plot95 Kampala road.
