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PERMANENT secretaries and accounting officers across the country will face charges of dereliction of duty, defined as a legal failure to perform assigned statutory obligations, if they do not comply with national procurement laws, the Office of the President and Cabinet has warned.
Permanent secretaries are the top non-political civil servants who run the day-to-day administrative and financial operations of Government ministries and under public finance laws, are the accounting officers responsible for line ministries’ budgets, financial compliance and proper use of public funds.
The warning directly targets public officials who bypass legal frameworks, with failure to execute statutory duties constituting a punishable breach of public trust and legal responsibility under administrative regulations.
The directive, detailed in Procurement Circular 2026 issued on September 4, 2026, by Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet Dr Martin Rushwaya, follows widespread observations of procuring entities violating the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Act.
The non-compliance has extended to Government transactions conducted under bilateral and multilateral agreements.
“No international commitment, MoU, or diplomatic understanding shall be construed as exempting any procurement from the application of this Act,” Dr Rushwaya said in the circular.
He stressed that public officials carrying out contract negotiations must enforce full compliance across every stage, “from planning through to contract management and completion.”
To protect domestic suppliers and stimulate local production, the office instructed all state agencies to strictly apply Section 29 of the Act, which mandates domestic preference and reservation schemes regardless of project funding sources.
Procuring entities are required to give priority to locally manufactured goods, apply mandatory domestic preference margins during tender evaluations, and avoid “unnecessary preference for imported goods where adequate local alternatives of acceptable quality and cost are available.”
Stressing why accounting officers will be held even more accountable for dereliction of duty, Dr Rushwaya highlighted the severe economic consequences of failing to perform these mandatory oversight functions.
“All accounting officers and heads of procuring entities are to note that failure to comply with domestic preference provisions undermines national production capacity, employment creation, and broader economic recovery objectives,” the circular reads.
“In this regard, accounting officers shall be held personally and administratively accountable for any unjustified departure from these provisions.”
The order further mandates the immediate, full adoption of the e-Government Procurement System to eliminate manual inefficiencies, standardise procurement steps, and improve transparency.
All public entities must process transactions through the online platform unless granted an explicit written exemption by the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe.
“Any deliberate resistance, non-adoption or circumvention of the system shall constitute non-compliance,” Dr Rushwaya warned, adding that “strict administrative and regulatory measures shall be instituted against Procuring Entities and officers that remain non-compliant without lawful justification.”
The rules also target inflated public sector spending, instructing state agencies to strictly adhere to the National Price List framework and approved pricing benchmarks to prevent inflated and unjustifiable quotations and reduce procurement abuse and financial leakages.
Under the directives, procuring entities must benchmark all purchases against official price schedules, immediately “reject supplier quotes that are exorbitant or unjustifiable,” maintain detailed records of price verification exercises, and escalate any pricing anomalies to PRAZ without delay.
“Procurement undertaken outside approved pricing thresholds without proper justification and approval shall attract regulatory scrutiny and appropriate sanctions,” Dr Rushwaya said.
The directive took immediate effect upon its issuance on September 4, 2026, with accounting officers instructed to immediately circulate the order to all procurement personnel, evaluation committees, and user departments under their jurisdiction to ensure full adherence.
