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Treasury is boosting the powers of the Office of the Chief Procurement Officer which is one of the main weapons against reckless spending and corruption.
Warning that the benefits of empowerment should be accessible on an equal basis, “not limited to connected insiders”, Treasury said that a Public Procurement Bill would be considered by Cabinet before April next year.
“While corruption has always existed in the public and private sectors, there are perceptions that state corruption and rent seeking have grown in recent years. Such practices, if not combated with vigour, threaten to corrode trust in institutions and set back national development,” Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said in his 80-page Medium Term Budget Policy Statement.
The bill will set the framework for spending, and also empower the Chief Procurement Officer – currently headed by Kenneth Brown – to conduct lifestyle audits and review transactions across the public sector.
In addition, procurement regulations were being revised to ensure that a least 30 percent of public procurement was reserved for designated groups such as small businesses and rural and township enterprises.
The public procurement process will be modernised, with greater emphasis on digitisation. Many manual processes will be automated, helping to simplify and speed up supply chain management.
Costs would also be reduced through bulk contracts across multiple organs of state to buy goods and services at competitive, pre-negotiated prices.
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