Gauteng open tendering under way

791 03.07.2015 Finance MEC Barbara Creecy observed the adjudication from the public gallery. This is the penultimate step before a tender is awarded to FNB. The overall aim of the Open Tender project is to promote transparency in government procurement processes through allowing the public to observe the process of the awards. Picture: Motshwari Mofokeng

791 03.07.2015 Finance MEC Barbara Creecy observed the adjudication from the public gallery. This is the penultimate step before a tender is awarded to FNB. The overall aim of the Open Tender project is to promote transparency in government procurement processes through allowing the public to observe the process of the awards. Picture: Motshwari Mofokeng

Published Jul 7, 2015

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Banele Ginindza

THE Gauteng provincial government had pioneered the open adjudication tendering process after it processed the R90 billion banking tender, Finance MEC Barbara Creecy said on Friday.

Creecy said in line with the commitments made by the Premier David Makhura in the state of the province address, the Gauteng government was targeting prioritising projects above R50 million for open tender adjudication in the current financial year.

“We believe this will go a long way towards restoring public confidence in the government procurement system,” Creecy said.

The government would build a sustainable relationship with the winning bidder to realise its broader objectives of radical transformation, mordenisation and re-industrialisation, Creecy said .

“As part of their social responsibility, we expect the winning bidder to work with us in supporting the development of the Gauteng City Region.

“The successful bidder will also work with us to increase the financial literacy of our employees and invest in community programmes to improve the living conditions of our people.”

Transparency

The open tender pilot project was launched in November last year to improve transparency in the award of contracts in line with supply chain management provisions of the Public Finance Management Act.

Meanwhile, Creecy said the provincial Treasury would soon deliver its financial report for the quarter in which it would unpack efforts made towards reducing the payment period for suppliers.

Creecy said the Treasury recently launched a partnering programme with suppliers to train them on requirements and procedures of doing business with the government, and on invoicing for their services.

“I think that we will shortly be releasing our quarterly financials and when we do that I am very happy to talk about that process,” she added.

“About 10 days ago we released our new application, we busy at the moment training suppliers to use our new application so that they can register themselves and submit their own invoices online.”

Creecy acknowledged that there have been instances where the Auditor General has found there have been irregularities in expenditure, irregularities where procurement has not been followed to the letter of the law, but that did not mean money was stolen.

“We are keen to eliminate that kind of expenditure across the province and... one of the best ways to do that is to improve the processes and open them up for public scrutiny.”

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