The drafting of long-awaited regulations for the Public Procurement Act was nearing finalisation, finance minister Enoch Godongwana told MPs on Wednesday.
However, he cautioned as several legislatively required steps were to follow, he could not give a specific date for their promulgation.
The regulations are needed for the implementation of the act, which provides for preferential procurement for designated groups such as blacks, women, youth and people with disabilities who suffered from unfair discrimination.
It also includes prequalification criteria for bidders, designates the procurement of certain goods and services exclusively from local manufacturers and requires winning bidders to subcontract part of their contracts to businesses owned by designated groups.
The aim of overhauling the law for public procurement, which amounts to about R1-trillion annually, was to address the fragmentation in the previous system and create a single, unified framework. It was also intended to address concerns raised by the Constitutional Court.
Opponents of the act emphasised that value for money rather than preferential procurement should be the legislation’s priority.
The act was signed into law in July 2024 but will only come into force when President Cyril Ramaphosa issues a proclamation.
Answering a question in the National Assembly by the chairperson of parliament’s finance committee, Joe Maswanganyi, Godongwana said the draft regulations were needed to accelerate economic transformation and improve the system of public procurement.
“The draft of the regulations is a complex undertaking dealing with intricacies of the entire public procurement landscape, which includes within its scope national, provincial and local government as well as public entities and parliament and provincial legislatures to a limited extent,” the minister said.
“More time is required for the drafting of the regulations to give appropriate effect to all aspects that require regulations and [ensure that they] are drafted clearly and concisely.
“The preparation of the draft regulations has now reached its final stage and will soon be ready for the intergovernmental consultation with the affected ministers as well as organised local government.
More time is required for the drafting of the regulations to give appropriate effect to all aspects that require regulations and [ensure that they] are drafted clearly and concisely.
— Enoch Godongwana, finance minister
“Thereafter the draft regulations must be released for public comment, and after consideration of the comments and the revision of the draft regulations, parliament must scrutinise them.”
Godongwana said these steps were prescribed in the act. Once they were finalised, the regulations would be promulgated.
The minister could not provide a specific date for promulgation, saying public comments on the draft regulations could be extensive.
He stressed the need to bring the act and the regulations into force to accelerate economic transformation and enhance the system of public procurement to curtail the misuse of public funds and corruption. This was a government priority, he said.
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