Zimpapers Logo

Kudakwashe Mhundwa and Tanaka Makuwaza
Government will send corrupt officials from state enterprises and parastatals to jail for offences related to flouting public procurement regulations.

Addressing a meeting to sensitise officials on the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Act, deputy chief secretary to the President and Cabinet Dr Ray Ndlukula said procurement officials from parastatals and Government departments should not bow down to pressure from politicians in awarding tenders as they would end up in prison alone for corruption.

“You will receive a lot of pressures from not only service providers, but also from politicians trying to influence how you make decisions and if you are professional enough, you should be able to weather the storm. Remember if you succumb, when you go to Chikurubi (Maximum Security Prison), you will be by yourself. Remember how politicians are, they influence you to make a decision but when you stand before the Public Accounts Committee or before the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (PRAZ) and you cannot answer, they will tell you I was never there. And you will end up in Chikurubi all by yourself. So please be careful,” he said.

The new Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Act of 2017, provides for decentralization of procurement activities to ministries, departments and agencies as opposed to the past when all purchases were done by the State Procurement Board.

This means that the new PRAZ will be responsible for regulation, monitoring and evaluation of procurement by departments while heads of ministries and agencies are empowered to do own procurement.

Dr Ndlukula said the new feature would go a long way in expediting implementation of various projects.

“This is aimed at ensuring that procurement decisions are free from undue influence at all levels hence strengthening professionalism of procurement in the public sector. There is the other side of me that needs to be realistic and say there will be one or two rogue elements that will spoil the apple, we do not want that.

“One or two will stray and we will be reading about them in the newspapers having been sent to Chikurubi (prison). But I hope that we do not get there,” he said.

He said the public procurement reforms were also aimed at eliminating corruption and resource leakages, which have had a ruinous and detrimental effect on the Zimbabwean economy.

Government will this week promulgate regulations to guide the operations of the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Act.

The piece of legislation came into effect on January 1, 2018 as part of efforts to bring efficiency in state procurement and to curb corruption, which had negatively affected public procurement processes in the country.

In an interview with The Herald Business, PRAZ acting CEO Nyasha Chizu, said the regulations came about as a result of public consultations and are expected to clearly underline how the Act is to be implemented.

“The draft for the regulatory framework has already been presented from the Attorney General to the minister with the rationale being that the minister is supposed to invite recommendations from the public. The window for this process was open from the 1st to the 31st of November last year and representations were received from the public.

“The Minister is looking at how those representations from the public were incorporated into the Act and once satisfied, he will issue the regulations and we are expecting them between Wednesday and Friday this week,” said Mr Chizu.

“Regulations look at how you apply the processes that are there within the act for example when approaching the market asking for quotations what are the minimum requirements, if you are doing a tender what are the timelines, how do you treat clarifications and what are the timelines, among others.”

The CEO also highlighted that the new Act will reduce tender disputes which have been famous for delaying national projects.

One such example is the dualisation of the Beitbridge-Harare and Harare-Chirundu highways which stalled due to a court challenge by a grouping of local firms that had initially been awarded the tender in 2002, but allegedly failed to raise the required capital.

“The accounting officer can reveal a decision that he has done, and if that decision has been revealed within ten days it means the delay on any project will be ten days which would have been provided in the plan which means there is no delay, then if there is a dispute between the Accounting Officer and the bidder the matter now goes to this independent reveal panel which is almost like a mini-court within the regulator which is going to make a decision,” he said.