Browsing by Author "Mensah, Samuel"

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    Enforcing ethical practices in the public procurement process in Namibia: Impact on socio-economic objectives. Paper presented at the 1st Namibia Customer Service Awards & Conference, 2014.
    (NUST, 2014) Hamutenya, Fransiska; Mensah, Samuel
    Discussions around the public procurement system in the local media have been largely negative. Many articles have revealed mismanagement in the system. The emphasis of these articles has been on the need to uphold transparency and accountability in the way public procurement is conducted in Namibia. The Namibian experience is that the tendering process seems transparent on the surface, especially in connection with the sending out of tender invitations. However, the process becomes less transparent during the awarding process, which has in some instances necessitated recourse to the courts. As a result of these course cases, it could be said that the Namibian community has reached a point where the weaknesses in the current public procurement system can no longer be ignored. This study sought to address some of the flaws in the public procurement system, by interviewing people who have some knowledge of the system. Findings of the study confirm that there are weaknesses in the current system which needs to be addressed. The results further show that the control mechanisms that have been put in place are seriously ineffective. After reviewing the control mechanisms in place, suggestions are made to strengthen them. In terms of socio-economic development, the findings indicate that the public procurement system could contribute to job creation and poverty reduction. The study also reveals that there is no comprehensive code of ethical conduct for Board Members and staff in the public procurement establishment. The researcher suggests that further research be conducted on areas that were not touched on in this study, such as the practice of exemptions, to evaluate the impact of exemptions on the image of the Tender Board, on the Secretariat, and on the tender process – in the context and spirit of anti-corruption.
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    Implementation of major organisational change process in NamPower for improved customer service. Paper presented at the 1st Namibia Customer Service Awards & Conference, 2014
    (NUST, 2014) Mulele, Mable Mwangala; Mensah, Samuel
    Reliable and affordable energy is vital for economic growth and development and, therefore, for improvements in wellbeing for all; but also for poverty alleviation, especially for the rural majority in Namibia. In this country NamPower is charged with generating, transmitting and trading energy, and therefore is critical to achieving the socio-economic aspirations of the country as presented in Vision 2030. For NamPower to deliver on the expectations above, the management of the organisation must move with time – as both production technology and demand for energy change rapidly – which would make planning and implementing organisational change an important component of NamPower’s management style. This paper attempts to identify the factors that must be taken into consideration for the implementation of major organisational change at NamPower to be successful. The study adopted a mixed research design, using both qualitative and quantitative data. Survey questionnaire (with both closed- and open-ended questions) was used in interviews with three categories of staff members of NamPower. Kotter’s (1995) eight-step change model provided the basis for many of the questions in the questionnaire. The answers to the closed-ended questions were captured in a 5-point Likert scale, which ranged from ‘strongly disagree’ to ‘strongly agree’. The main findings of the study were that though the management of NamPower established the need for change through discussion, persuasion, and encouragement, presented a clear vision of where NamPower would be after change, and developed strategies to guide workers towards change, individual risk-taking, which contributes to making change successful, was not encouraged and the benefits that will accrue to workers from change were neither discussed nor even communicated. Also, though the reward system sometimes recognised individual initiative, effort and achievement, it was not seen by the majority to be fair because it did not often recognise rank. These clogs in the wheels of change need to be removed for NamPower to be an excellent service provider.
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    Local and international students' perception on service quality: A case study on a South African University. Paper presented at the 1st Namibia Customer Service Awards & Conference, 2014.
    (NUST, 2014) Naidoo, Vannie; Mensah, Samuel
    The quality question has now been thrust to the fore in the academic market because students and their sponsors more rigorously shop around for quality of programmes and of modes of delivery. Universities, especially those that thrive on intake of foreign students, must therefore accommodate this trend in their academic and support services. This paper conceptualises service quality within a university environment, teases out the economics of service quality, and determines if there are differences in the way local and international students at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal perceive quality of academic and support services, using the SERVQUAL model for data collection and the Mann-Whitney test. Data was collected from a sample of 380 students drawn from all five campuses of the University. The Mann-Whitney test results indicate that there is no statistically significant difference in the Gap scores between local and international students on service quality at the 95% level; that expectations of foreign students on services provided by the international office were not met; and that students ranked the University’s services as “poor”. The management of the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal should therefore seriously consider the strategies recommended here for improvements in quality of academic and support services and in the institution’s ranking inside and outside South Africa.