PRAZ forms task force to tackle tender abuse

The Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (PRAZ) has established a special task force to investigate and curb the abuse of public procurement systems by individuals allegedly using women-led businesses as fronts to secure Government tenders.

The initiative seeks to ensure that affirmative procurement programmes designed to empower women, youths and other targeted groups benefit the rightful recipients rather than opportunistic individuals exploiting the system.

Speaking to Zimpapers Business Hub on the sidelines of the Fifth Annual Public Procurement Symposium in Bulawayo, PRAZ chief executive officer Dr Clever Ruswa said the authority was strengthening oversight mechanisms and leveraging technology to identify the ultimate beneficiaries of businesses participating in public procurement.
Dr Ruswa said Zimbabwe’s procurement laws already provide for affirmative procurement measures.

“You will find that section 29 of the Public Procurement and Disposal Public Assets Act speaks about domestic preferencing them for operationalisation now that we have got our regulations and section 8 of our regulations, then categorise those areas where we are saying if we are going to have affirmative procurement which areas are we prioritising.

“So the example which is normally given is women on the businesses or the youth on the businesses.”
He said the introduction of the Electronic Government Procurement (e-GP) system had significantly improved transparency and verification of ownership structures.

“Prior to us implementing the electronic government procurement, when we registered in suppliers, people would register under the category say of women and we did not have problems such because we did not have mechanisms to verify further.

“But when we started implementing electronic government procurement, now we sort of had the pushback that people didn’t want to register under that category, because now with the electronic government procurement, you can identify the ultimate beneficiary.”

Dr Ruswa said the system enables authorities to track financial flows and identify cases where women-owned businesses are being used as fronts.

PRAZ is also collaborating with institutions such as the Ministry of Women Affairs, SMEDCO and the Women’s Bank to verify ownership through existing databases.

To further strengthen safeguards, the authority has established a task force, chaired by a University of Zimbabwe dean, to develop frameworks that align procurement systems with partner databases and prevent abuse.

“We now want to come up with frameworks which will align now to those databases so that we avoid some of these abuses,” said Dr Ruswa.
He said the ultimate goal is to ensure that genuine beneficiaries benefit from public procurement opportunities.