The Sunday Mail
Before the reconstitution of the State Procurement Board (SPB) into the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Praz), public procurement processes were fraught with irregularities, which often led to the haemorrhaging of resources from the public purse often by corrupt officials acting in connivance with tenderpreneurs. This prompted the enactment of the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Act, which brought with it sweeping changes to regulations governing the procurement of goods and services by Government, including the conduct of accounting officers.
Our reporter Debra Matabvu recently spoke with Praz chief executive officer Mr Nyasha Chizu on this and other issues.
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Q : Procurement officers in Government ministries, local authorities and State-owned enterprises (SOEs) are now required to make a signed undertaking to discharge their dities with integrity before assuming their duties as part of measures to curtail corruption. How will this ensure compliance by the officers?
A: Section 70(3) of the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets (PPDPA) Act provides that “before a procurement officer enters upon his or her office, as such, he or she shall, in writing, undertake to – (a) faithfully exercise the functions assigned to them as procurement officers; and (b) abide by rules of conduct provided for by or under this Act, including code of conduct provided in Section 71.”
Paragraph 2(1) of the First Schedule to the PPDPA (General) regulations (Statutory Instrument 5 of 2018) as read with Section 70(1) of the Act defines a ‘procurement officer’ as anyone who is directly or indirectly involved in the public procurement process.
The Act specifies that such individuals directly or indirectly involved in procurement are those who play a role that is responsible for any aspect of the entity’s procurement, including the implementation of procurement.
The Act covers all stages of procurement of goods, construction works and services, from procurement planning, tendering, evaluation of tenders and contract award, contract management and disposal of public assets.
Staff directly involved then relates to staff employed in the procurement management units, as well as the heads of public entities that are mandated to uphold the provisions of the Act.
Staff indirectly involved includes users who design specifications, staff involved in evaluation committees in line with Section 18 of the Act, staff responsible for project management and staff in finance responsible for creditors and payments of suppliers.
Section 14(2) of the Act provides that the responsibility of ensuring that the procurement laws are complied with within a procuring entity lies solely with the head of each public entity.
In view of this provision, it is the responsibility of every public entity to ensure that employees classified as “procurement officer” under the Act sign the undertaking in the format prescribed by the Authority.
Praz is in the process of finalising compliance, monitoring and evaluation regulations to enhance its supervisory functions to ensure the integrity and public confidence objectives of the Act set out in Section 4 are achieved.
Q: But how will Praz ensure compliance and what sort of sanctions will be imposed on officers who fail to make the undertaking?
A : The details of the sanctions are in the document under development.
The Authority has power to withdraw the authority to conduct procurement that it issues in line with Section 15 of the Act.
Further, failure to comply with any provision of the Act can be construed criminal abuse of office under the Section 174 of the Criminal Codification Act.
Q: When are these regulations set to kick in?
A: The Authority is working on two sets of regulations for professionalising procurement, compliance, monitoring and evaluation.
The regulations to professionalise are aimed at ensuring that we achieve the promotion of integrity of, and fairness and public confidence in, procurement processes in line with Section 4(1)(d) of the Act.
The Authority is mandated, in line with Section 6(1)(h) of the Act, to promote training and professional development of persons employed in public procurement so as to ensure adherence to high ethical standards.
Compliance, monitoring and evaluation regulations are aimed to ensure that public procurement is effected in a manner that is transparent, fair, honest, cost-effective and competitive; to promote competition among bidders; and to provide the fair and equitable treatment of all bidders leading to procurement contracts that achieve value for money.
The target is that the two instruments are operational by the second half of this year.
Q: How will these new regulations ensure that there is accountability by the procurement officers? How does the introduction of these new regulations feed into Vision 2030?
A: Professionalisation is going to introduce a ‘licence to practice’ for staff employed in the procurement management units.
There shall also be an introduction of lower level licences for staff indirectly involved in public procurement activities.
Violation of a licence shall lead to the withdrawal of such after following principles of natural justice.
This shall inevitably increase the cost of corruption. This shall increase the speed at which public entity utilise public resources towards the achievement the vision of His Excellency, the President, Cde E.D. Mnangagwa, of an upper middle-income economy by 2030.
Q: How are these new regulations in line with regional/international best practices?
A: Professionalisation is now a global trend and institutions such as the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply are championing the campaign to issue licences to practice to enhance the integrity of public procurement.
Their members are actually encouraged to undertake an ethic tests in addition to the undertaking to abide by the code of conduct.
In view of Section 14(2) of the PPDPA Act, it is the responsibility of every head of every public entity to comply with every provision of the Act.
