It was Archimedes, the original naked scientist, who said: “If I can find the leverage point, I can move the world.” His famous “law of the lever” implores us to seek those solutions that require minimum effort while yielding maximum benefit. The ease of rolling a heavy ball of steel with a lever versus the hard labour of trying to push it, is a common example.
The recent awarding of tenders in favour of friends and family members of politicians presents a challenge that is wrapped in the opportunity to explore alternative remedies to tackle weaknesses in the supply chain process, particularly at the bid adjudication stage. If we dial back to the genesis of the Covid-19 personal protective equipment tenders, the Gauteng health department would issue the tenders via a secure blockchain platform where bidders would submit their responses. The bids would be anonymised on the platform and randomly directed to a similar entity for adjudication — that is, any of the other eight provincial health departments.