21 public entities exempted from Procurement Act requirements

GOVERNMENT has exempted 21 public entities cutting across mining, telecommunications and financial services sectors from the application of the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Act.

Under the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Act [Chapter 22:23], the President may, after consultation with the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe, by notice in the Government gazette, exempt from the application of the Act a prescribed public entity on specified grounds.

In an extraordinary gazette yesterday, the 21 firms have been exempted from procurement processes as they are operating in competitive markets and/or are managed by a third party under a management contract and accordingly need to be prescribed for the purposes of exemption by virtue of section 3(9).

The procurement process involves issuing requests for proposals or bids, evaluating the received proposals, and awarding contracts to successful bidders.

Last year, the Government launched the electronic Government procurement system, where the Government is prioritising the transformation of the public procurement sector.

The entities are AFC Commercial Bank Limited Registration number 4503/1995, Aurex (Private) Limited Registration number 1846/92, Bindura Nickel Corporation Limited Registration number 552/66, Fidelity Gold Refinery (Private) Limited Registration number 564/1978, Freda Rebecca Gold Mine Limited Registration number 1326/80, GreatDyke Investments (Private) Limited Registration number 2599/2006, HomeLink (Private) Limited Registration number 8701/2004 and the Infrastructure Development Bank of Zimbabwe established in terms of the Infrastructure Development Bank Act [Chapter 24:14].

Also included is Jena Mines (Private) Limited Registration number 6/1941, Kuvimba Mining House (Private) Limited Registration number 13291/2020, National Venture Company (Private) Limited Registration number 6529/2020, NetOne Cellular (Private) Limited Registration number 2225/2000, Printing and Minting Company of Zimbabwe (Private) Limited Registration number 847/2021 14.

Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe established in terms of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Act [Chapter 22:15], RESZIM Investments (Private) Limited Registration number 458/1984, Sandawana Mines (Private) Limited Registration number 3593/92 and Shamva Mining Company (Private) Limited Registration number 9219/2012.

Other exempted entities are Tel-One Private Limited Registration number 4658/2000, The People’s Own Savings Bank of Zimbabwe established by the People’s Own Savings Bank of Zimbabwe Act [Chapter 24:22], Trojan Nickel Mine Limited Registration number 252/64 and Zimbabwe Alloys Limited Registration number 43/1950.