City Council approves plan reducing city gov’t purchase delays

SAN DIEGO (CNS) – A plan to reduce delays in city government purchases
was approved unanimously by the City Council Monday.

City procedures call for a Purchasing and Contracting employee to
process most requisition orders from throughout city government, creating a
“choke point” that slows down the delivery of goods and equipment needed by
municipal workers, according to department director Dennis Gakunga.

Under the new plan, individual departments will be able to handle most
orders under $25,000. Purchases over that amount will be handled by Purchasing
and Contracting and undergo competitive bidding.

According to Gakunga, his employees handled 9,500 orders in the last
fiscal year, with nearly 8,000 of them under $25,000. Combined, the 8,000
requisitions amounted to 4 percent of city expenditures — meaning the
department spent 84 percent of its manpower on 4 percent of the spending, he
said.

Gakunga estimated orders would be completed in half to one-third the
time under the new plan.
“This should make everyone's life a lot easier,” Councilwoman Sherri
Lightner said.

The Purchasing & Contracting Department was one of four city functions
that underwent an extensive review over the past several months. One of the
findings was that the ordering process was slowed by redundant bureaucracies.

Gakunga said he planned to introduce future changes that he hopes will
give city officials a better handle on purchasing data, which could bring
savings through consolidated orders.