Finance dept ‘in process to stamp out tender graft’

Amid claims that National Treasury procurement systems disempowered small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs), and failed to stamp out corruption in government, director-general Dondo Mogajane yesterday said the department of finance was in the process of tightening all public procurement regulations.

Mogajane said Treasury would soon be aligning all public procurement, following Cabinet’s recent approval and release of the draft Public Procurement Bill for public comment.

“One of the objectives of the Bill is to address all the risks associated with public procurement,” he said.

Mogajane was responding to charges by SA Communist Party activist Ndzipo Kalipa that the National Treasury failed the SMME sector due to lack of risk management in public procurement.

Kalipa is on a crusade to champion a civilian oversight over the country’s public procurement system, which he maintains is “open to abuse by corrupt officials”.

“In government and in state-owned enterprises (SOEs), decisions on who is awarded a tender are still shrouded in secrecy,” said Kalipa.

“Service providers are being run into the ground and when vulnerable SMMEs take government to court over non-payment, it is like a David and Goliath tussle because the state has resources to be represented by big legal firms.

“With widespread corruption in the country, the hardest thing has been how to conduct ethical business with government, due to those in position of influence expecting to be paid bribes.”

Responded Mogajane: “We will monitor departments that are repeat offenders and accounting officers of government departments who fail to settle invoices timeously.”

Financial misconduct, said Mogajane, “is grounds for dismissal, suspension, or other appropriate sanction against an official of the public service”.

“If the accounting officer finds any transgression, they must take swift action against the officials, including laying criminal charges or civil proceedings,” he added.

– brians@citizen.co.za

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