Cosatu welcomes Cabinet’s approval of Draft Procurement Bill before Parliament
Cape Town – Cosatu says the introduction of the Public Procurement Bill in Parliament will lay the foundation for a single public procurement system across the entire state such as departments, municipalities, entities and state-owned enterprises.
“Currently there is no single public procurement legislative framework and as a consequence, the situation in many state institutions is akin to something from the Wild West,” said Cosatu’s parliamentary co-ordinator, Matthew Parks.
The bill repeals the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act of 2000, and also aims to create a single framework for public procurement and eliminate fragmentation in laws dealing with public procurement.
In approving the introduction of the bill, the Cabinet said the significance of the Draft Procurement Bill was that it provided for the advancement of the national objectives such as transformation, the empowerment of women, youth and people with disability.
“It also provides for promotion of localisation and supporting local innovation and research, and gives preference to procurement from small and medium enterprises in South Africa,” the statement said.
Parks noted that the existing legislative gaps were brought to the fore last year when the Constitutional Court declared that the National Treasury lacked the legislative powers to set local content and Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) public procurement criteria.
The court in its judgment ruled that the minister had exceeded his powers in prescribing the 2017 Regulations.
The Zondo Commission had heard countless evidence of how leaky public procurement systems enabled industrial-scale corruption and wasteful expenditure.
“We are pleased that we were able to reach consensus on many key interventions and the majority of the bill’s provisions,” Parks said.
“It is critical that the Cabinet secretariat immediately table the bill in Parliament for its consideration and processing. We cannot afford any further delays in beginning the rebuilding of our public procurement system,” he said.
Cape Times