Praz warns defiant entities

Business Reporter
THE Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Praz) is set to descend on defiant entities that are procuring without authorisation in terms of the Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Act.

In January this year, Government promulgated the Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Act to ensure the procurement and disposal of goods is done in a manner that is transparent, fair, honest, cost effective and competitive. The State Procurement Board has been transformed into a regulator, Praz, after its integrity was tainted by allegations of corruption over the awarding of public tenders.

Recently, Praz conducted workshops across the country to sensitise procurement entities about the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Act, which was in sync with Section 315 of the Constitution that advocates for a procurement system that is transparent, fair, and achieves value for money.

Speaking during a ZBCtv programme on the economy on Sunday night, Praz chief executive officer Mr Nyasha Chizu said despite having sensitised entities on public procurement, the level of response on procurement authorisation was still low.

“What is actually worrying on my part is that procuring entities need to be authorised to conduct procurement. The level of information that we have given and the level of response in terms of authorisation, does not match.

“What the Act provides in terms of section 94 of the regulations is that if you are to conduct procurement without authorisation for a specific value, you have committed a crime.

“So, we’re going to be monitoring all those entities that have conducted procurement without authorisation and they will be brought to book,” he said.

“Then the second thing is for those procurement that require review by the special procurement oversight committee, the attitude of that committee is if you don’t approach us with dirty hands, if you don’t have an application with Praz, we don’t consider your procurement; so that is the manner in which this issue is being handled.”

The sensitisation workshops have been attended by chief executive officers, director-finance, director-human resources, the persons responsible for procurement in all the State enterprises and parastatals, as well as local authorities and Government ministers.

Mr Chizu said the responsibility of procurement lay with procurement entities while Praz was in terms of Section 4 of the procurement regulations mandated to ensure suppliers to Government were registered.

“We (Praz) simply register our suppliers who have interest in Government business and you don’t need to register because you’ve been awarded a tender.

“The law says for you to bid, you’re supposed to be a known supplier,” he said.

The Praz boss said every supplier regardless of nationality, as long as they have the capacity to trade with Government, was eligible to submit bids for public tenders.

He said Praz was also working on improving its accessibility through online registration of suppliers and by the end of the year, the programme should be concluded.

Among other responsibilities, Praz is mandated with offering advice to Government, setting standards and guidelines, training and professional development as well as referring contraventions of the law to enforcement agencies such as the police.