Proposed Anti-Corruptional Bill Could Give Treasury More Clout

Currently Treasury can only advise that contracts it deems irregular be cancelled. But the Public Procurement Bill, if passed into law, would allow it to nullify such contracts.

- Andile Ntingi & Gershwin Wanneburg

National Treasury wants the proposed procurement and supply chain management legislation to grant it the authority to cancel government tenders that contravene the law, says Solly Tshitangano, Treasury’s chief director for governance monitoring and compliance.

“In the new procurement bill, we are including that [the right to cancel tenders]. In case an institution is not implementing the remedial actions, National Treasury should come in and do that,” Tshitangano said in an interview with finweek.

If that happens, the imminent Public Procurement Bill is sure to raise the political temperature in government circles, as calls grow for decisive action to address damaging allegations of state capture.

The proposed amendments will give Treasury more power to root out corruption and excessive government spending. Such powers would put Treasury on par with the Public Protector, whose authority was confirmed by the Constitutional Court’s Nkandla judgment last year.

The highest court in the land ruled that remedial actions proposed by the Public Protector had to be implemented, unless challenged by a judicial review. The ruling was in response to an application brought by the EFF, which wanted the court to compel President Jacob Zuma to pay for non-security upgrades made to his Nkandla homestead, as ordered by former Public Protector Thuli Madonsela.

Legal processes

The Public Procurement Bill is meant to consolidate existing legislation and policies around government procurement. The bill was supposed to be brought before Cabinet by April, but those plans were derailed by the axing of Pravin Gordhan as finance minister at the end of March.

Treasury officials said a Draft Procurement Bill was prepared last year after consultation with procurement officials, relevant departments and other stakeholders.