THE CASE STUDY

The Bush Steel Co $($BSC$)$ was established $5$ years ago, owned by locals in Botswana. Based in the capital city of Botswana, Gaborone where the need for Steel works and resources was increasing at an alarming rate due to a soaring number of construction projects in Gaborone, this business was successful and profitable for the first three years due to long term contracts from both private and public sector projects in the country.

In the fourth year the company was awarded a multibillion project in which a domestic open tender method of procurement was used by the government of Botswana to solicit for the best service provider in support of the Local Procurement and Citizen Economic Empowerment schemes aimed at promoting local investors.

This multi$-$billion tender was a complex project that required uncommon skills and expertise, which was scarce locally. The BSC hired few experienced and qualified key personnel with just minimum qualifications without experience as the company management did not want to spend more funds on salaries, they hired several part time employees and most of them were unqualified to execute this complex project.

Within three $(3)$ months of project execution, BSC started experiencing challenges such as;

Supply disruptions

Failure to supply

Poor supplier relationship management

Lack of quality management

Poor communication with the client

Failure to resolve conflicts with client

High staff turn over

Unethical conduct by employees trying to bribe the client

Soaring costs both direct and indirect

Unable to control the company spend

Poor contract management

The management of BSC upon realizing that their reputation is slowly getting damaged and there is poor customer service aggravated by poor service delivery, they then decided to engage qualified and skilled personnel to alleviate these challenges and effectively manage the project.

QUESTION

The client was using an open domestic tendering method of procurement due to reasons advanced in the case study, over and above the government of Botswana was trying to promote local companies, discuss the challenges of using this tendering method as evidenced in the case studydiscuss the contract management cycle, citing atleast two $(2)$ activities performed at each stage.