CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

A public contract is a legally enforceable commitment of a party to undertake the work or improvement desired by a public authority. It has to do with an agreement to perform a particular task for the benefit of the community at large (Noel, 2000).

The method by which contracts are awarded is ordinarily regulated by statute or constitutional provision and the prescribed method must be followed (Whelan, 2000). For major government expenditures such as the construction of public buildings and highways, government bodies require competitive bidding which is a well-defined public process of awarding a contract (Noel, 2000).

Unlike reproductive work that encompasses human beings-covering cooking, cleaning, washing, feeding, and all tasks usually identified with a mother or an individual who is personally responsible for the general wellbeing of others, a Public contract has to do with productive work.

Reproductive work is mostly done by women is generally unpaid and usually not considered as important as productive work which is paid work. This is a result of gender division of labour which originates from sex roles.

While this is not to say that men do not engage in reproductive work, men continue to be generally excused by society from taking on such roles because of various reasons; because they are already engaged in productive work, because these do not fall within gender-prescribed roles, or because “boys will be boys” among others.

It should be noted that women who are engaged in productive work are generally still expected to fulfill reproductive work and the question that usually arises when women apply for productive work is “How do you plan to divide your time between work and family?” It should be noted that men seeking formal employment are not burdened with this dilemma (Eviota 1993).

Furthermore, society sees the public sphere as a male domain that will enable men to fulfill their ascribed gender role as breadwinners of the family while the private sphere is for women who are caregivers and mothers of the family. This is seen as an extension of women’s sex / biological roles (Stock, 1995).

Due to the many challenges faced by women in the public sphere, most women prefer to stay in the private sphere where they will have no competition, sexual harassment, and intimidation from bosses. The heavy workloads in the private sphere limit their chances of being active participants in the public sphere.

Also, the many expectations of the public sphere like educational status and working experience further challenge women’s active participation. Even women who are qualified usually suffer from subordination and discrimination at their workplaces from their male bosses.

Public contracts is a major part of productive work for a long time it has always been done by men who have dominated the public sphere. However, women too have been getting into the field of public contracting. In the US for example, a conflict of competency (COC) Programme has been established which allows women with small businesses to appeal a contracting officer’s decision that s unable to fulfill the requirement of a specific government contract for which she is the apparent successful bidder. The certificate of competency (COC) program helps to ensure that women with small businesses especially non entrants into the federal procurement arena are given a fair opportunity to compete for and receive government contracts (ICT, 2014).

In Africa, the rate of women’s entrepreneurship is higher than in any other region. However, many women turn to public contracting businesses as a means of survival rather than economic empowerment it was found that about eight million women in Africa owned enterprises (World Economic for Forum Gender Gap Report 2013, p. 31).

In Cameroon, parliamentarians met at the beginning of January 2011 to discuss better ways of managing public contracts. This important meeting is one of the many activities that commemorated the public contract regulatory board. This has actually encouraged women’s participation in the public contracting business (Mbella, 2011).

1.2 Problem Statement    

Public contract is a major part of productive work for a long time it has always been done by men who have dominated the public sphere. However, women too have been getting into the field of public contracting.  Using Buea subdivision as a case study this study tries to bring to limelight the gender issues in the implementation of a public contracts.

1.3 Objective of the study

1.3.1 General objective

The general object of this study is to determine the gender dynamics in the implementation of public contracts in Buea subdivision.

1.3.2 Specific objectives

 The specific objectives include:

1. To determine the reason for men and women involved in the public contracting business
2. To describe the different types of contracts often available at the ministry of public contract Buea sub-Division
3. To determine the kind of contract often won by men and women
4. To determine the difficulties encountered by both men and women in the implementation of the projects
5. To identify the profile of women and men that get into public contracts