adminPamela Shumba, Senior Reporter
THE ongoing Public Procurement Reforms in the country are expected to curb corruption and improve efficiency in the public sector, the Senior Principal Director in the Office of the President and Cabinet, Mr Solomon Mhlanga, has said.
Addressing journalists during a procurement and open contracting workshop in Kariba yesterday, Mr Mhlanga said the subject of public procurement reforms has been identified at the highest level of both the executive and the legislature as a key driver to efficient public sector delivery.
“The public procurement reform will render public procurement processes more efficient, transparent and in consonance with other policy initiatives and developments in the technological front.
“This workshop is being convened against the backdrop of a constitutional provision that requires the promulgation of an Act of Parliament that addresses the procurement of public goods, services and works in a manner that’s transparent, fair, honest, cost effective and competitive,” said Mr Mhlanga.
He said reforming and modernising the State Procurement Board is one of the key elements of ensuring that Ministries, Parastatals and State Enterprises become more transparent and accountable in discharging their mandates, hence improving service delivery.
“The main objective of the reform process is to transform the State Procurement Board into an authority responsible for setting procurement standards and guidelines.
“All public entities comprising Government ministries, Parastatals, State enterprises and local authorities will be capacitated through robust skills development programmes to enable accounting officers and respective entities to undertake their own procurement,” said Mr Mhlanga.
To achieve this goal, Mr Mhlanga added, professionalisation of procurement is at the centre of this reform process to ensure the public sector achieves value for money in procurement processes.
He said the Government was pleased with the level of support for the reform programme being received from the World Bank, adding that it facilitated the engagement of Crown Agents, the Legislative Reform consultants who assisted in the development of the principles of the new Bill.
Mr Mhlanga said the reform programme is in two phases, the first phase being the legislative review and capacity building while the second includes the e-procurement in line with the broader e- government agenda.
Senior Procurement Executive in the Office of the President and Cabinet Mr Nyasha Chizu said the process of coming up with the Bill started with consultations in January where the Government, private sector and civil society and Parliament were invited to give their input for the new Order.
“The Bill went through the Cabinet Committee on Legislation in June this year and passed through full Cabinet in July. It’s currently with the Attorney General who is preparing to gazette it for the Parliament process.
“Once gazetted, Parliament is expected to conduct public hearings and the Bill will be considered by the Parliament Legal Committee to see if it’s not violating any constitutional provisions.”
Once the Bill passes through, Mr Chizu said, it will go through the first and second reading in Parliament before going to Senate and final assention by President Mugabe.
The Government, in 2010, with support from the World Bank, commissioned a country integrated Fiduciary Assessment (CIFA) project through the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development that assessed public finance management systems and the Public Procurement systems to identify gaps in the public sector.
The CIFA project produced a country procurement assessment report (CPAR) that was discussed and adopted by the Government in February last year.
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