National Treasury Director-General, Dr Duncan Pieterse.
Image: Armand Hough / Independent Newspapers
THE National Treasury has directed government departments, constitutional institutions, and public entities to make public details of suppliers, their ownership, nature, value, and quantity of procurement transactions and all procurement contracts above R1 million within 30 days of being concluded.
The entire public procurement sector is estimated to account for over R800 billion in annual expenditure across the country.
National Treasury Director-General Dr Duncan Pieterse said the new instruction was aimed at strengthening public trust and fostering accountability. This instruction is set to be implemented from April 1 and is meant to provide for the reporting of procurement information of departments, constitutional institutions, and public entities.
Other details to be disclosed in the report include all extensions, early terminations, and other variations of procurement contracts over R1m within 30 days of signing the amendments.
“The National Treasury will publish procurement information obtained from procurement and payment transactions recorded in (the) basic accounting system (BAS), logistical information system (Logis), and other institutional systems submitted through the transactions application programming interface and data upload tool of the Office of the Chief Procurement Officer (OCPO) of the National Treasury and supplemented by contract information reported on the eTender portal and supplier details from the central supplier database,” Pieterse explained.
In addition, institutions using BAS and Logis must ensure that procurement information is submitted timeously, and those not utilising the two systems must submit procurement information through the transactions application programming interface and the OCPO’s data upload tool.
To improve the management of conflicts of interest in procurement, government institutions not using the personnel and salary administration system must submit information on employees whose names appear on the central supplier database monthly.
The publishing of the procurement information will be done quarterly by the OCPO on www.etenders.gov.za in consolidated form and will be available for the public to download.
Head of the University of Venda’s Department of Public and Development Administration, Professor Harry Munzhedzi, said Treasury’s intervention is an important measure in trying to address corruption as the public procurement process is where most of the public sector graft and maladministration are experienced.
“Openness and transparency may indeed enhance public trust, which is usually lost in public procurement processes. However, it remains to be seen whether this important measure on paper will be effective in addressing cases of corruption and maladministration,” he said.
Munzhedzi added that there have been many legislative and policy frameworks that sought to address irregularities with no success in implementing them.
“Openness and transparency, which are important measures particularly in addressing the system's weaknesses, are paramount additions to the existing ones. It is through closed bidding processes that fraudulent and nepotistic practices are practised.
“Service providers without relevant capacity and expertise are appointed to render technical services that otherwise require relevant expertise. Cousins and comrades are often appointed with minimal capacity and experience, resulting in compromised public services,” Munzhedzi said.
He said consequence management has to be the order of the day so that those who consider contravening public policies may consider the consequences before continuing with their wrongful actions