The legislation to create a single overarching law to govern public procurement is only likely to be passed by parliament at the end of 2022, acting chief procurement officer Estelle Setan said in a Treasury webinar on Wednesday.
The Treasury still has to work through a mountain of public submissions, revise the bill, consult with stakeholders and get cabinet approval for the revised version of the bill, officials said during the webinar.
The aim of the proposed Public Procurement Bill is to eliminate the fragmentation in the laws that deal with public sector procurement including the Public Finance Management Act and a raft of Treasury regulations on supply chain management.
It will create a single regulatory framework for procurement by national, provincial and local government, as well as state-owned entities and will also open the way for a revamped system of preferential procurement.
The cabinet instructed the Treasury to accelerate the modernisation of the public procurement system through a legal framework in December 2014 but Treasury envisages that the Public Procurement Bill will only be passed by parliament at the end of 2022.
It will then still have to be signed by President Cyril Ramaphosa for it to become law.
The draft bill was gazetted for public comment earlier this year with an eventual deadline of end June and 4,569 comments were received. Treasury officials are currently working through these comments and hopes to complete this process by end January next year.
Setan said that most of the comments received were about supply chain management processes and methods.
Extensive consultations have been held by the Treasury with stakeholders in the drafting process and more might be held in 2021 on the revised bill which takes account of public comments.
A socioeconomic impact assessment will also be conducted on the revised bill.
Setan said it was envisaged that the bill will be tabled in parliament in April 2022 and passed by parliament in November of that year.
She noted that the current plethora of laws dealing with public procurement had led to uncertainty as to which law was applicable, and inconsistency in interpretations. The system was inflexible, incoherent and hampered development and service delivery.
In terms of the draft published for public comment, the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act and its points-based system will be repealed. It will be replaced by a menu of options for preferential procurement including set asides and a point system.
The draft bill will contain a framework for preferential procurement and the advancement of the previously disadvantaged by unfair discrimination. Specific provision is made for the advancement of women, the youth and people with disabilities, small businesses and locally produced goods including local technology and its commercialisation.
Setan said provision is also made for the setting aside of contracts to promote a category or categories of persons, business or sector, locally manufactured goods, local technology, job creation, enterprises based in townships and rural and underdeveloped areas and to promote enterprises based in a particular province or municipality.
The draft bill also covers infrastructure procurement and public private partnerships as procurement methods.
It proposes to establish a public procurement regulator under the minister of finance to oversee the implementation of the legislation and enforce compliance. It will replace of the current office of the chief procurement officer.
It also proposes the creation of a dispute resolution mechanism for the review and reconsideration of procurement decisions that will ultimately culminate in an independent tribunal. This will obviate the need to take disputes to courts in a costly process.
The draft bill proposes to criminalise certain conduct, including where a person knowingly gives false or misleading information or evidence; interferes with or exerts undue influence on any official of an institution or a member of the tribunal; opens any sealed bid or divulges their content prematurely; connives or colludes to commit a fraudulent, corrupt, collusive or obstructive act; causes loss of public assets or funds as a result of negligence; or delays, without justifiable cause, the evaluation or awarding of a contract beyond the prescribed period.
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