The study explored lack of improvement of public procurement management practices in the public sector. The main themes which the study focused on are the following; causes of non-compliance of public procurement and contracts management procedures, factors influencing the selection of appropriate procurement management processes and the main factors for poor implementation of procurement management processes in the public sector. The study aimed to identify the causes of non-compliance; determine factors influencing selection of appropriate procurement management processes, and lastly examine, the main factors leading to poor implementation of monitoring and evaluation in the public sector. The study employed a qualitative design to investigate the problem using the exploratory method. The purposive sampling method was used to select interviewees from three departments, namely, Department of Local government and Traditional Affairs, Public Works and Office of the Premier with 15 participants as a selective sample of the study. The key findings of this study indicate three main problems which are: that lack of properly understood processes of public procurement leads to poor implementation of the system together with alternative strategies of implementing the system. Shortages of skills and lack of training amongst those who get hired within the supply chain management sections or in the procurement management sections of the departments who have little understanding of holistic public procurement management in general affect selection processes. Findings also indicate lack of adequate monitoring and evaluation on procurement management. The study recommends that people who get hired in the procurement management section of these departments should have proper procurement qualifications. Regulations and rules should be made clear to all those who work in the procurement management sections in the public sector, to enable the improvement of best management practices and also to improve public procurement management practices in the public sector.

M. Tech. Marketing / The focus of this study is on the determinants of positive green-product purchase behaviour of Tshwane youth. Environmental knowledge, environmental concern, social pressure and green-product purchase intentions were identified as determinants of positive green-product purchase behaviour and investigated among a sample of Tshwane youth alongside their green-product purchase behaviour. The differences between the various demographic groups with regard to their positive green-product purchase behaviour were also investigated.

A Research Report submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Masters of Management in Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation / This research investigates perceptions of the SMME community in Johannesburg, Gauteng, on the impact of the Preferential Procurement Policy (PPP) Framework Act (Act No. 5 of 2000) as a Supplier Diversity (SD) tool. The research questions discussed are: 1) Are SMMEs directly benefitting from government as a result of PPP? 2) Are SMMEs indirectly benefitting through the private sector as a result of PPP? 3) How can PPP be improved? and 4) What are the problems with the implementation of PPP? The Osiba Research (2011) found that there was minimal impact from government programs in supporting and improving the majority of black-owned SMMEs and integrating them into the mainstream economy. It was further found that the major shortcomings were not due to insufficient or inaccurate policy, but the government’s inability to implement and support the very programs they designed. Other factors that work against SD in South Africa are corruption and nepotism which have led to lack of transparency in the awarding of tenders (Lodge T, 1998). Weak policy coordination and implementation, funding constraints and the fact that policy benefits were leveraged almost exclusively by medium-sized enterprises, which were often white owned, meant that previously disadvantaged people continue to be economically marginalized (Rogerson, 2013). Another setback is that of set-asides. Government has not been practicing its own policy through public procurement and as a result the private sector has showed little commitment to these set-asides. This is partly because the National Treasury holds that set-asides will inflate the cost of procurement (Timm, 2011). This is a qualitative study and as such an interpretivist research approach was used. Enterprises included in the sample were selected using the City of Johannesburg’s Supplier Database, which is the City’s official database that contains the list of accredited prospective suppliers of different goods and services that are required by the City. The results of this research suggests that while there have been links to increased economic growth and rebalancing of socio-economic inequalities as a result of PPP, there are still major problems to overcome such as lack of transparency in awarding tenders, beneficiaries of government business employing non South African citizens/permanent residents, despondency on set-asides, fronting, lack of access to funding, lack of information and lack of commitment to PPP by large corporates. The study concludes with recommendations on policy, how the problem of rationalisation might be overcome, as well as how closer cooperation between SMMEs, government and large corporates can enhance PPP. Recommendations on potential future research are also made. / MT2016

M. Tech. Marketing / The constant changes in consumers' way of life are accompanied by a growing number and variety of food-related diseases that tend to increase the health perceptions in terms of food products that people consume. Consumers now support actions to enhance a healthier lifestyle and to be more sensitive to factors that affect their health. For enterprises that are involved in the food production system, it becomes one of the most significant issues to understand what food products are good for people's health and what the determinants are of consumers' purchase intentions that encourage or discourage their purchase intentions in terms of food products. Little research has been done previously on the critical determinants that encourage or discourage consumers' purchase intentions when buying health foods in the South African context. Based on the scant literature on these concepts, this study was undertaken to investigate the level at which students' health-consciousness influences their purchase intentions for health-food products when making a purchase.

Thesis (MTech (Construction Management))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2005 / The study investigates the effectiveness of the Public Works Affirmative Procurement Policy in the Republic of South Africa, and the research being conducted in the Western Province. It is the intention of the researcher to determine the role of the public sector, and to determine if government's efforts to implement the policy of procurement have been successful. The aim of the Affirmative Procurement Policy was primarily to promote Affirmable Business Enterprises (ABE's i.e. small medium and micro enterprises which is owned mainly by previously disadvantaged communities or PDI's). The need to transform the public sector procurement system as current policies and procedures clearly favour large and established enterprises. In 1996 the State Tender Board approved the decision that the Department of Public Works implement the policy of APP, in all its construction projects. International models of procurement were explored, so to compare that with the current South African situation. Surveys conducted throughout the research targeted mainly previously disadvantaged individuals, in order to establish the ambiguity of the system. The countries discriminatory past laws contributed largely to the backlog of service delivery and to widespread impoverishment. Due to lack of resources, finance and skills training growth in the emerging sector hinders progress as contractors encounter numerous problems facing the industry. The introduction of the lO-point plan approved by Cabinet as a measure to achieve this goal was not fully successful as some provinces only implemented it partially whilst others have systems in place that differ from the proposal detailed in the plan. The implementation of affrrrnative procurement, which would ensure participation of, targeted groups would consequently address the development of SMME's, increase the volume of work and generate income among the marginalized sector of society.

Thesis (MTech (Construction Management))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2005. / A preliminary review of the existing public sector delivery towards sustainable employment and human resource development shows that the nature of contract awards in South Africa tends to favour more established and large enterprises. There was a need to transform the public sector procurement to respond to the changing needs of the new era in South Africa. The emergence of the affirmative procurement policy, has found a procurement environment, which does not seem to have the ability of taking the thrust of the affirmative procurement policy. Therefore there is a need to establish a system, which will provide a procurement regime, which will meet the objectives of the affirmative procurement policy. The purpose of this study is to look at the impact of the implementation of affirmative procurement policy in pre-tender stage on affirmable business enterprises within the state tender board procedures in South Africa. Implementation requires deliberate identification and removing of the structural and behavioural obstructions to change. The evidence emanating from the data obtained in the preface of the dissertation indicates very strongly that there is gap between the procurement rules of the state tender board and the developmental policies of the public sector. These findings raised concerns about the process of implementation whether will it benefit and also serve the purpose to the stakeholders such as targeted groups and small medium and micro enterprises.

The study investigated issues concerning procurement and administration in the Department of Health (DoH) in the Eastern Cape and has further investigated the role of the implementation of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA), Act 1 of 1999 in the department. That included issues associated with the administration and procurement in relation to service providers from the private sector. The DoH in the Eastern Cape Province delivers:“ … a quality health service to the people of the Eastern Cape Province promoting a better life for all and ensures accessible, comprehensive, and integrated services in the province, emphasising the primary health care approach, as well as utilising and developing all resources to enable present and future generations to enjoy good health and quality of life” (Department of Health [DoH], Eastern Cape, Departmental Annual Performance Plan, 2013:3). Various researchers have investigated the implementation of the PFM Act 1 of 1999 and have identified gaps and made recommendations regarding the identified gaps. The study is based on the following reports from various authors: According to Pillay (2013), since 1994 every public sector department has lost approximately R385 billion to fraud, corruption and maladministration. Government employees have accepted kickbacks in exchange for rigging tenders, including focusing on high levels of corruption (Albert, 2011:1). The fraud and corruption in the Eastern Cape DoH, which involves nepotism, corruption and fraud amounting to a million rand in the audit report of 2013, have prompted calls by the opposition for interventions (PricewaterhouseCoopers [PWC], 2013:9). Departmental Annual Performance Plan for 2013/2014. Impact of accountability and ethics on public service delivery: a South African perspective which involves accountability stating that all government departments have to be efficient to ensure value for public funds including the qualitative and value-laden expectations of the society (Raga & Taylor, 2008:1). EC (2010:9), Audit Report: Health Department, Eastern Cape. King III Report (2009) – Corporate Governance. The study has built on previous research conducted by other researchers who have conducted research on the issue of the implementation of the Public Finance Management Act 1 (PFM Act 1) of 1999, and had identify further gaps not previously identified by other researchers or in the audits. In addition, this study aims to also identify shortcomings that have been described in the recent audits 2013/2014 of the DoH, Eastern Cape. Together with the new gaps identified in the PFM Act 1 of 1999, the researcher aims to make a number of recommendations to improve the effectiveness of the implementation of the PFM Act 1 of 1999. The PFM Act 1 of 1999 was promulgated by the South African government in 1999. The Act promotes the objective of good financial management in order to maximise service delivery through effective and efficient use of available limited resources as well as credible interaction with private sector service providers. A key objective of this Act is to put in place a more effective financial accountability system over public entities. The objectives of the Act are to: Modernise the system of financial management, Enable public sector managers to manage, while at the same time being accountable, Ensure timely provision of quality information, To eliminate waste and corruption in the use of public assets.

Background and Rationale: South Africa is in its second decade of democracy. Since the introduction of democracy in 1994, the South African government and its citizens are making strides into overhauling the country to make it one of the best habitable countries in the world. All these changes are accompanied by challenges regarding the types of resources required to accomplish this when delivering services to the communities. In order for the government to accomplish this, systems and procedures which are supported by legislation and operational frameworks should be developed, implemented, monitored and reviewed when necessary. Legislation which has been developed to guide and regulate public procurement includes the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act (Act 5 of 2000). The previous procurement approaches had various fallacies. For example, there was no accountability, no transparency, no equitable distribution of economic resources and no supporting structures to oversee the process. The government then realised the need for having an integrated approach towards public acquisition of goods and services. The public service should operate in an environment where there will be fair, equitable, transparent, competitive and value for money in procurement. 2 The objective of the Preferential Procurement Policy Act (Act 5 of 2000) is to give effect to section 217(3) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (Act 108 of 1996). Section 217 (3) stipulates that national legislation must prescribe a framework within which the procurement policy may be implemented. Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act (Act 5 of 2000) aims at redressing the past racial imbalances, where race and gender were used to control productive resources. In order to address the shortfalls of the previous systems which failed to provide equal competition opportunities to all the people of South Africa, the mandate, as stipulated in the amended Section 217 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (Act 108 of 1996), has been implemented. This section calls on government and organs of the state to apply a preference point system to enhance and give preference to the historically disadvantaged individuals or designated groups, who in the past, were victims of unfair discrimination on the basis of race, gender or disability. The Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act (Act 5 of 2000) and its related regulations and systems emanate from Section 217 (3) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, (Act 108 of 1996). The government has, since 1995, started engaging in a number of initiatives with the purpose of restructuring the procurement. One of the initiatives was the development of the Green Paper on Public Sector Procurement Reform in South Africa in 1997. This paper is a discussion document which contains various proposals aimed at achieving the objectives of good governance, developing and utilising the country’s human resources potential to the full, and encouraging a well-developed and competitive business sector (http://www.info.gov.za/greenpapers/1997/publicproc.htm). 3 Subsequent to the Green Paper on Public Sector Procurement Reform the government published the Preferential Procurement Regulations in 2001, in terms of Section 5 of the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework. The government’s aim was to elicit contributions and discussions from role- players and interested parties. These inputs are crucial in a country that is committed to democracy. It can be deduced that the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework is a tool that is intended to provide direction and guidance to public officials when they engage in the acquisition of goods and services whilst giving leverage and preference to those who have been victims of the past imbalances. There is a perception that business opportunities favour individuals and businesses that are well established and the emerging business owners are marginalised. The reforms in the procurement processes that have been put in place are intended to ensure that there is equality, transparency and accountability in the allocation of business opportunities. Preference has to be afforded to the previously marginalised people to play a role in the public sector procurement and enhance income generation. The aims of the Preferential Procurement will be defeated if there are no systems to control and monitor the engagement of historically disadvantaged individuals. The affirming of such business owners should be viewed as a tool for the distribution of wealth, job creation and a poverty alleviation strategy from the side of government. The rationale for the research, therefore, is to establish whether the historically disadvantaged individuals’ lives are improving and bringing about sustainable economic development in their lives.

When the African National Congress (ANC) took office in 1994 it introduced various policies that would govern budgetary and financial reforms in South Africa. The main objective was to modernize the management of the public sector. Even though government Departments have started implementing the Supply Chain Management strategies, there are still some challenges and deficiencies that hinder appropriate implementation. The key research objectives of the study is to investigate and evaluate the implementation of Supply Chain Management in service delivery with specific focus in procurement processes of goods and services in the Eastern Cape Department of Local Government and Traditional Affairs This study has demonstrated perceptions in the implementation of Supply Chain Management (SCM) within the Department of Local Government and Traditional Affairs in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. The overwhelming majority of participants have shown dissatisfaction with the implementation of SCM. Service providers argue that there is no opportunity for them to develop as Small, Micro and Medium Enterprises (SMMEs) and only those service providers who are fully developed benefit from SCM. The study intends to establish and highlight the challenges that the Eastern Cape Department of Local Government and Traditional Affairs is presently faced with in regard to implementation procurement processes among staff members, managers and service providers This study is mainly qualitative but also exposes the reader to the quantitative research method

As part of the on going financial management reforms, the South African Government introduced the Supply Chain Management (SCM) Framework. Since 2004, The Eastern Cape Provincial Government embarked on a process of ensuring that procurement reforms wrought by the advent of SCM are seamlessly ushered in. Information Technology (IT) and systems are a sine qua non in supporting the implementation of the SCM Framework. However, IT does not operate in a vacuum. Many other factors complement, supplement and influence the objectives sought through the use of Information Technology and systems. It is the confluence of this factors that eventually will determine that success or failure of using technology to support procurement reforms in government. The research investigates the factors affecting the success of the Information systems underlying SCM in the Eastern Cape Provincial government. Data for the research was gathered using a questionnaire administered to all Eastern Cape Provincial Government departments. The research borrows from Heeks’ ITPOSMO model in assessing SCM and Information Systems structures and processes and gauging their state of readiness to embrace procurement reforms envisaged through the SCM Framework. Because of the importance of having a strong IT functional unit in any government department, the study highlights IT issues that typically confront IT managers, especially in the public sector. Heeks’ ITPOSMO model emerges as a sufficient framework for identifying gaps that currently exist between the reality and perceptions on the readiness of IT to adequately support government procurement reforms. The dissertation concludes that the success of the system is dependent not only on the technological component of the system, but also on other factors.