Jiangmen: School Uniform Takes The First Step In "Sunshine Procurement"

For a long time, the school uniforms of our city are sold directly through schools and manufacturers. The quality and price of uniforms have always been one of the focuses of parents' complaints. How to make students wear "cheap and fine" uniforms has become a hot topic of social concern.

Commissioned by the City Education Bureau yesterday, the municipal government procurement center for the first time put the primary and secondary school uniform purchase into the scope of government procurement for public bidding, which attracted the attention of all parties.

Many people believe that this approach may not solve the problem in the short term, but at least provides a way to solve the problem and take the first step of "sunshine procurement".

Icebreaking of sunshine purchasing

The relevant person in charge of the municipal government procurement center pointed out that the purchase of school uniform is not included in the government procurement catalogue, which is mainly based on such considerations. On the one hand, it is to effectively reduce the price on the basis of quality assurance, so as to satisfy the parents, schools and students. On the other hand, the school uniform procurement involves thousands of households, and the social influence is great. Centralized purchasing can effectively curb the corruption of school uniform.

The official also said that the purchase of school uniforms by the education department, no matter how low the price and the good quality, will make people think that there is water. Now, through the public bidding, the designated production service enterprises of primary and secondary school uniforms have been determined, which has changed the situation that the education department should both "athletes" and "referees" when purchasing school uniforms, so that the order of school uniform has been standardized. This is an important step in the "sunshine procurement" aspect, and is the "ice breaking action".

It is certain that the quality of students' uniforms will be better than before and the price will be more reasonable after the implementation of the bidding.

Strict supervision of school uniform production

Yesterday's tender will ultimately determine who is qualified to become a school uniform supplier. How can the relevant departments supervise the supplier's qualification?

Wen Shiqiang, a finance and accounting department of the Municipal Education Bureau, said that the bidding documents had clearly stipulated that the schools could organize the successful bidder and the Jiangmen quality and technology supervision department to carry out quality inspection and record for the fabrics before production.

After the production of the garments is qualified and the certificate is eligible for approval, the school has the right to refuse to accept the unqualified products.

The quality guarantee period of goods shall be less than six months from the date of purchase.

In the quality assurance period, there are quality problems. The winning bidder shall fulfill the obligation of replacement, rework and return, and shall be liable for damages.

During the period of service, if the product quality and service of the winning bidder are not up to the required requirements, they may lodge complaints with the education administrative department and the relevant departments. The investigation and verification by the administrative departments of education and relevant departments are valid complaints.

If a valid complaint is more than 3 times, the bid qualification will be revoked and the performance bond will be confiscated.

In addition, in order to facilitate the purchase of students, the supplier should set up a sales point at least in the urban area of Jiangmen (Pengjiang District).

In order to ensure a reasonable price, the procurement center has clearly set the maximum price when bidding, and the supplier's quotation during the service period must not exceed the maximum price. When the specific sale is made, the price can float downward but not upward.

Provide platform for parents to participate?

It is reported that the practice of public bidding for school uniform has been pushed away in some cities in China. Schools are only middlemen for the consumption of school uniforms. Parents and students are the mainstay of consumption.

As consumers, they should have the right to decide what style and price school uniform to buy. They should also know where the school uniform is bought, how the price of school uniform is formed, but everything is done for parents by schools and experts. Parents are only required to pay the money according to the requirements of the school, which is obviously unreasonable.

In response, Wen Shiqiang, a finance and accounting department of the Municipal Education Bureau, responded that the education department had also considered providing a certain platform for students and their parents to participate in deciding the order of school uniforms, but the specific operation methods still need further discussion.