Procurement is the process of finding and agreeing to terms and purchasing goods, services or works from an outside source, usually through a competitive bidding or tender process. Procurement is used to ensure that the buyer receives goods, services or works at the best possible price when aspects such as quality, quantity, time and place are compared. Corporations and public bodies often define processes that promote fair and open competition for their businesses while minimizing risks such as exposure to fraud and collusion. This study aims to analyze the purchasing activities of universities in Vietnam. This is a new topic and there is not a single article mentioned or available. The research has selected a number of articles related to outsourcing to be able to collect data, given the specific factors of the research paper. Research results shows that purchasing is growing. So, in particular, the element of changing the purchasing mindset is really more necessary for businesses.
In any profession in general and the education industry in particular, the need to use equipment is always an urgent issue. Especially in the training or production industries, equipment is always needed a lot. Especially for the education industry, the equipment not only helps students to easily grasp the lesson, but also supports teachers and lecturers a lot in their mutual communication. Therefore, universities need a very clear and strict procurement process to avoid waste, buying redundant equipment and also saving money for the school to invest in many more essential objectives. The need to shop is an indispensable need of every individual, so without a clear and strict procurement process, it is easy to be enslaved to shopping leading to excess waste [1-5].
Objectives of the Study
Understanding better the procurement process for improvement education services at Van Hien University
Find out the shortcomings of procurement for improvement education services at Van Hien University
Supplementing missing points for procurement to serve improvement education services at Van Hien University
Improve the shortcomings of procurement for improvement education services at Van Hien University
Lay a foundation to improve the procurement process for improvement education services at Van Hien University
Theoretical Basis
Purchasing Process
Purpose: In order to ensure the purchase of all kinds of goods (equipment, supplies, tools, specialized books serving the library, stationery, etc...) and services with the best quality, competitive prices and timely delivery [6].
Scope of Application
The process applied to purchases at the Van Hien University, excluding purchases from the faculty’s operating funds provided by the University.
Responsibility
The relevant units are responsible for implementing the content of this process [3,6,7].
Procurement Demand for Education and Training in Different Specialties
Procurement Needs for Training in Different Industries: Procurement of office equipment for different units (faculties and administrative and functional departments) is related to: Printers, computers networks, projectors, furniture, scanners, photocopiers .... to serve the teaching and learning needs of lecturers of all training disciplines of the University [1,2,8,9].
In addition, the university also established an equipment management room at each facility for the purposes of: Management, procurement, repair and maintenance of the school's facilities, serving training and scientific research activities of officials, employees and students of the whole university [10].
Table 1: Compare and analyze the procurement needs of universities (State and Private)
State university | Private university |
When a relatively detailed survey by the Department of Facilities, School Equipment (Ministry of Education and Training) on the facilities of public universities and colleges was published with 50% schools are below standard, many have called it the "tragedy" of higher education. But that is a fact for many years, when universities exist and develop without a common plan and standard on facilities. | Advise and assist the principal in managing, synthesizing, proposing ideas, organizing the implementation of the administration, management and use of the entire system of facilities (land, buildings, machinery, equipment) of the university. Review, purchase and monitor the effective use of the school's assets for study, teaching, work and research. Under the Principal's orders to carry out the procurement, warehousing, coding, management, equipment, distribution, use, preservation, maintenance, evaluation... cleaning, landscape care, green areas of the school. and other tasks as assigned and directed by the Board of Directors. Formulate internal rules, regulations and regulations on management, use and preservation of property, buildings and public works as well as equipment; Implement work contents in relation to external units to perform the functions and tasks assigned by the Board of Directors. |
Data Sources and Income Methods
Data sources and methods of collection through statistical methods, synthesis, comparison, literature review. Statistical data on facilities needed to serve Van Hien University are from the School Administration Department and the Finance Department.
Research Methods
Data collection is a very important step in the research process. However, data collection is often time-consuming, labor-intensive and costly. Therefore, it is necessary to clearly define the appropriate methods of data collection, as the basis for planning the data collection in a scientific way, in order to achieve the highest efficiency of this important period. We use different research methods to exploit secondary sources of information, based on inheritance of existing studies in general and other relevant documents.
Theoretical synthesis and analysis, analytic studies study different documents and theories by breaking them down into parts to better understand the subject matter. Summary is the linking together each side, all pieces of information are analyzed to create a complete and profound new system view about the research object.
Procurement Process and Level of Demand for Training at Van Hien University
Purpose: Ensure that the procurement and repair of assets originate from actual needs, timely response and effective service of the school's activities.
The purchase and repair of property is carried out in accordance with the regulations of the State, the process of the school and achieves efficiency in all aspects: price, quality and function [11].
Ensure the purchase of books, reference materials derived from the actual needs, respond promptly and effectively serve the needs of lecturers, civil servants’ employees (public servants) and students [12].
The purchase of books and reference materials at the Information and Documentation Center is carried out in accordance with the State's regulations and the school's process and achieves efficiency in terms of price, efficiency and effectiveness.
Ensuring the conditions of facilities, teaching equipment, teacher training and management staff to implement the program, textbooks in accordance with higher education curriculum, specifically:
Invest in building practice classrooms to remove semi-permanent classrooms that have expired, are badly degraded and need to be rebuilt
To build and supplement the number of missing classrooms to meet the standard of 1 class per room
Building additional subject classrooms
Building replacement and supplementing function rooms
Building additional libraries
Procurement of teaching equipment to implement new higher education programs and purchasing specific textbooks
Minimum equipment and other equipment for teaching
Tables and chairs for 02 seats
Foreign language teaching room
Computer room to serve the teaching of informatics in the school
Conduct training for teachers and administrators to implement new higher education programs and textbooks
Subjects of Application
All activities of purchasing goods and services are to serve regular activities of the whole University
Does not include retail procurement activities contracted directly to responsible parts
Functional units that need to purchase goods and services
Administration Department receives and considers requests for goods procurement and determines the need for procurement of common assets of the University. Gather requirements to purchase goods and services and submit them to the Board of Directors for approval. Responsible for ensuring the quality of related goods and services that the unit is in charge of, except for the procurement of books, reference materials, newspapers and magazines at the Information and Documentation Center [10-14].
The Department of Planning and Finance is responsible for controlling records, purchasing procedures for goods and services in accordance with regulations and paying suppliers when sufficient valid documents are available to functional units in the University.
Order of Purchasing
Step 1: Make a Plan:
Units plan to purchase additional assets every year according to the announcement of the University
Based on the norms, the Equipment Administration Department summarizes the list, compares the existing assets of the unit and gives suggestions
The University held a meeting of the Scientific Council to review and approve each specific item in the list compiled and proposed by the Equipment Administration Department
Step 2: Approve the Plan
Depending on the value of the bidding package and the source of investment capital, the competent principal shall approve or submit a report to the Ministry of Health for approval of the project, equipment list and contractor selection plan
After being approved, the Equipment Administration Department together with the consulting team of experts develop a bidding document and submit it to the Rector for approval
Step 3: Organize Contractor Selection
Posting information about the bidding package on the Bidding newspaper
Issuing bid invitation documents within the time published in the bidding newspaper
Bid opening: The investor and the units participating in the bidding jointly participate in the bid opening
The University establishes an expert group to evaluate each bid
The school establishes a team to appraise contractor selection results
The principal approves the contractor selection results
Step 4: Contract Execution
Negotiate and finalize the contract with the contractor and submit it to the authorized Principal/Vice-Principal for signature
Monitor contract performance, receive goods, organize acceptance and handover to user units
Drafting the liquidation of the contract, submitting it to the authorized Principal/Vice-Principal to sign when the two parties have fulfilled their obligations to each other
Carry out the contract payment procedures and transfer the Finance and Accounting Department to pay the contractor
Strengths and Weaknesses of the Procurement Process at Van Hien University
Strength: All of these traits, doing the right thing, make up the school. Strengths can be all the results of alliances or ventures with a partner with the technical or financial strength that make up the school's competitiveness [13-15]. The strength of the school can include the following factors:
Suitable financial capacity
Good thoughts of students towards the school
Teachers have good teaching ability
The lecture slides are carefully prepared
The relationship with the economy as a whole
The advantages of discounting tuition fees during the epidemic season, scholarships for students
Better school promotion campaigns
Teaches better soft skills
General management and good organizational management
The skills and techniques are higher than other schools
Sensitive information system
Weakness
A weakness is anything a school lacks or does not perform as well as its competitors or is placed at a disadvantage. Weaknesses may or may not reduce a school's competitiveness depending on how much weakness is present in the market [12-16]. The factors that are often mentioned during the analysis are:
There is no new teaching strategy direction
Outdated facilities and facilities
Lack of depth and talent management
The school's image is not popular
The price of the school's courses is relatively higher than that of its competitors
Analyze the weaknesses of the business to see that activity ng business is done no good schools, there should be changes in time. The school must address or limit its weaknesses in the short term or at least plan to change in the future. However, it must also be acknowledged that there are weaknesses that the school can overcome but there are also weaknesses that the school cannot overcome or can but cannot currently afford. Weakness analysis is the key to doing that successfully [7,11,17].
Causes of Strengths and Weaknesses of the Procurement Process at Van Hien University
Causes of Strong Points:
Ho Chi Minh City is one of the cities in the Southern key economic region. The province's economic growth rate is always at a high level, where it is continuously at the top of the competitiveness index in recent years
Being a convenient place right in the center, so managing the purchasing process is very easy, without fear of missing goods when you need them
Is a place to receive extremely large human and natural resources when located in the center of the Ho Chi Minh City. Thanks to attracting human resources, it is the motivation for the school to improve facilities more proactively by creating an efficient purchasing process
Each department has different responsibilities and strengths to suit the nature of the work proposed by the school. Each department needs different tools to successfully complete its teaching
What is the appropriate financial capacity, what is the appropriate financial capacity here? These are costs that the school can afford to pay for something in the process of reforming and renovating the school. How important is financial capacity? At the present time when everything is derived and paid for with material things, the material here is money (Money is a common standard to compare the value of goods and services)
Causes of Weakness
Due to inefficient facility management, because the allocation to facilities is limited. Leads to purchasing not being provided in a timely manner
Allocating to too many branches to work on purchasing and not concentrating in one place, which is often rotated at that time, will lead to shortages
The failure to control costs is also a great danger to the procurement, leading to the stagnation of operation management, so please allocate a reasonable way for financial control
Finding poor quality suppliers is also a very important reason for purchasing, because at that time we will have poor perishable material problems that are forced to repair and quickly get damaged
The purchase and repair of learning equipment, books and documents comes from actual needs, in order to promptly meet the needs of teaching and learning staff, lecturers and lecturers. staff and students, effectively serving the school's activities.
In addition to learning equipment, the school also has to purchase, repair and upgrade facilities to help teachers and students have an effective learning environment, exchange knowledge and experience the profession most fruitful.
The purchase of books and reference materials is carried out in accordance with the regulations of the State and the Ministry of Education and Training, the school's process and achieves efficiency in terms of price, use efficiency.
However, the status of the facility has not been the real focus, much equipment necessary not procured enough resulted in facilities and equipment to study not meet demand of teachers and students.
The school's procurement process is still long and too many procedures and stages lead to not meeting the practical needs of lecturers and students [1,2,18].
Recommendations and Suggestions
For the Management Board and Management Board of Van Hien University: Need to pay more attention to and pay more attention to the procurement of learning equipment and facilities of the institutions
Need to decentralize and simplify the purchasing process. For the procurement of medium and low budgets, it can be left to the departments to decide for themselves, avoiding the situation where all purchases, large or small, must be submitted to the principal and school board, both a waste of time and inefficient fruit [19].
For Heads of School Departments
Carry out the procurement and repair of equipment on a quarterly or monthly basis (could be the beginning or the end) in order to limit the time-consuming and inefficient small purchases. Make a clear list of new equipment that needs to be purchased, need to buy more, give a list of damaged equipment that needs to be repaired, replaced or cannot be used to help the Equipment Administration department easily manage and submit a shopping list to the principal, school board and school board for approval.
For Staff/Lecturers/Researchers
Carry out procurement and repair of equipment on a quarterly or monthly basis (could be the beginning or the end) in order to limit the time-consuming and inefficient small purchases. Make a clear list of new equipment that needs to be purchased, need to buy more, give a list of damaged equipment that needs to be repaired, replaced or cannot be used to help the Equipment Administration department easily manage and submit a shopping list to the principal, school board and school board for approval.
Solutions to Improve the Procurement Process for Teaching and Research:
Decentralize and simplify the procurement process
Surveying staff, lecturers and students to find out and promptly procure necessary equipment and materials for teaching, learning and research
Regularly check the facilities to plan repair and purchase to ensure the conditions of the facilities
Should plan to purchase periodically to reduce extra costs and avoid wasting time
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