Corruption in public procurement

Ethical public procurement

Government and state-owned enterprises need to purchase goods and services in order to carry out their duties and responsibilities. This process of public procurement must be effective and corruption-free in order to drive economic growth and development.

Government is working to:

• Ensure more transparency with procurement so that taxpayers know what their money is being spent on.
• Uncover unlawful activities in procurement and take strong action against those responsible.

Procurement reforms

The State Capture Commission proposed a number of reforms in government procurement processes in their report.

Findings revealed that money was siphoned from the state through the abuse of procurement processes.

Over 30% of the State Capture Commission’s report deals with public procurement abuses.

The Public Procurement Bill was introduced in parliament in June 2023 in response to the Commission's recommendations related to procurement reform.

Read more about the Commission's procurement system reforms.

The Public Procurement Bill

This Bill includes:

• harmonisation of laws related to procurement across the three spheres of government

• increasing transparency in procurement processes to combat corruption

• binding codes of conduct for persons involved in procurement

• protection for accounting officers and improved processes for disbarring of suppliers who contravene procurement laws.

The Bill also establishes two new structures:

• the Public Procurement Office within the National Treasury, with powers to issue legally binding instructions, enter and search premises and seize ;and

• the independent Public Procurement Tribunal to review decisions by the Public Procurement Office.

Read the Public Procurement Bill here