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President Emmerson Mnangagwa has urged the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe and other stakeholders to transform the procurement landscape and increase confidence in the sector.
He made the remarks while officially opening the Public Procurement Second Annual Conference organised by the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (PRAZ), which is running under the theme “Sharing Insights, Building Relationships” at the Harare International Conference.
“The Conference provides an opportunity for procurement practitioners and stakeholders to introspect on how to improve the public procurement process as well as proffer solutions to inefficiencies that affect service delivery.
“Your deliberations here should enable the promotion of a holistic, inclusive, and strategic approach to procurement at all levels of Government, be it at the Central or local authority level as well as within state-owned enterprises,” President Mnangagwa said.
To achieve this, President Mnangagwa said all stakeholders in the public procurement process need support in capacity. Through sharing and openness, stakeholders were urged to build and maintain networks, which ultimately foster a culture of learning and re-learning from one another to deal with emerging trends.
He said the main tenets of public procurement include fairness, transparency, honesty, cost-effectiveness, competitiveness, and maintenance of integrity.
“Until a few years ago, public procurement was perceived as an administrative, back-office function. Today, however, it is a crucial pillar of service delivery and a catalyst for innovation, new technologies, and broad-based empowerment. It is also a key tool for ensuring budget accountability and spending efficiency, among others.”
The President added that when done diligently, sustainable procurement enhances value for money, fosters economic growth, and creates jobs by promoting small and medium enterprises.
In his remarks at the same event, Vice President Rtd General Dr. Constantino Chiwenga said funds were set aside for e-governance procurement to allow Zimbabwe to be compliant with international best practices in order to limit face-to-face interactions that often lead to corruption.
Tafadzwa Muguti, the Permanent Secretary of the Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution for Harare Province said public procurement is the cornerstone of service delivery and thanked PRAZ for taking a bold step to convene a conference where bold discussions about improving the sector are taking place.
By reducing barriers and building the capacity of small and medium enterprises, the youth and women were to participate and confidently compete in the procurement process, for the growth of their enterprises.
Currently, the gazetting of the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets (Compliance, Monitoring, and Evaluation) Regulations is being accelerated. These Regulations will introduce administrative penalties against those Public Entities and individuals that are committing administrative misdemeanours with respect to the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Act.
In order to ensure value for money, President Mnangagwa emphasised that the Procurement Regulatory Authority should exercise its mandate of ensuring that stakeholders adhere to the procurement rules and regulations without fear or favour. He underscored the fact that this must include scrutinising the bidding process and procurements for goods and services which are below the thresholds as well as unsolicited bids, to eliminate incidences where procuring entities abuse the threshold system by splitting bids.
Mrs Vimbai Nyemba, the PRAZ Chairperson said in the past 4 years since its inception, PRAZ has recorded a number of successes, which would not have been possible without the commitment to duty as well as the unwavering support and cooperation from its various stakeholders.
She said with the COVID-19 pandemic, the country increased its adoption of technology in doing business, and PRAZ embraced the digitalized economy in the public procurement sector to help improve efficiency and effectiveness.
“PRAZ remains committed to contributing to the development of the country. The pandemic created significant challenges in procurement not only in Zimbabwe but across the globe. In response, PRAZ devised initiatives to address these risks by putting compliance measures in place to ensure that the basic principles of public procurement remain sacrosanct. Let me assure you all, that we are working tirelessly to ensure that PRAZ is the hallmark of efficiency and superintends a public procurement system that is. transparent, fair, honest, cost-effective, and competitive. This process remains a process and not an event,” she said.
