Ramaphosa signs Public Procurement Bill into law

The new act will create a single framework to regulate public procurement, including preferential procurement, by all organs of state, with the necessary efficiency, cost-effectiveness and integrity.

“This is in line with the stipulation in Section 217 of the Constitution that contracting of goods and services by organs of state in all spheres of government must occur in accordance with a system which is fair, equitable, transparent, competitive and cost-effective; and that national legislation must prescribe a framework within which a procurement policy must be implemented,” Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said on Tuesday. 

“The Public Procurement Act addresses weaknesses in the procurement of goods and services by organs of state that have in the past enabled various degrees of corruption, including state capture.”

Magwenya said that the act would be applied to several governmental departments.

"The Public Procurement Act, which will be administered by the Minister of Finance, applies to departments, constitutional institutions, municipalities, municipal entities, and public entities. There are also a limited number of clauses that apply to Parliament and provincial legislatures.

"The Act applies to all procurement carried out by a procurement institution (including procurement through donor or grant funding), any person who submits a bid or has been awarded a bid; and all procurement carried out by any person on behalf of a procuring institution.

"Among its wide-ranging provisions, the act lists persons who may not submit bids including a public office bearer, employees of Parliament or provincial legislatures, and officials or employees of, among others, public entities, constitutional institutions, municipalities and municipal entities."

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