The Public Procurement Amendment Bill is being described as a key tool in strengthening the fight against corruption and state capture.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) said workers and ordinary taxpayers have paid a heavy price for billions of rand lost to corruption, making stronger procurement regulations critical to protecting public funds.
COSATU Parliamentary Coordinator Matthew Parks said the proposed amendments seek to strengthen the recently enacted Public Procurement Act and give authorities greater powers to act against companies implicated in corruption, collusion and bribery.
“It seeks to build upon the new Public Procurement Act, which was passed into law by the last Parliament just before the 2024 elections. It basically seeks to do a couple of things just to strengthen it,” Parks explains.
He said one key change would empower the Public Procurement Office and National Treasury to intervene when public institutions fail to investigate allegations against companies doing business with the state.
“It also empowers the Public Procurement Office to actually publicly list those companies and to ban them from doing business with the state,” Parks said.
According to Parks, the amendments are particularly important because there have been instances where companies flagged during investigations continued to secure government contracts.
“We have seen before, previously, when the SIU flagged some companies, which generate issues, there was no action by the relevant state department or by Treasury to do something about it,” he said.
Parks believes the Bill could help close these gaps and ensure that companies found guilty of wrongdoing face meaningful consequences.
“Well, if we want to clean up the state, we have to make sure people know there are consequences for corruption, for state capture,” he said.
He argued that companies should not be able to move between government departments after being implicated in wrongdoing without facing consequences.
“We see time and again many companies have been found wanting in one department; they go and do business with another department, and there’s no real action or consequences,” Parks said.
The Bill would also strengthen coordination between the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), Treasury and procurement offices, with Parks saying this could ensure investigations result in tangible action.
“ You don’t just have an investigation, no consequence, but actually we begin to penalize those who have broken the law,” he said.
VOC News
Photo: Pixabay
