AG focuses on non-compliant departments

The auditor-general, Kimi Makwetu, is gunning for departments that are failing to meet the public procurement policy for local content after the Department of Trade and Industry (dti) discovered that some of them were not sticking to the rules. The department said there had been an anomaly in the advertisement and distribution of the tenders by the organs of state. It said the auditor-general should look at the tenders for 2014/15 to determine whether they had complied with the 75 percent local content procurement policy. In its progress report on the implementation of the Industrial Policy Action Plan (Ipap), the department said the government was not compromising on its 75 percent local content policy. This has to be done across sectors of the state to boost local demand.

“The dti continued to track and flag non-compliant bids from the Tender Bulletin and other modes of advertisement to monitor compliance by organs of state,” the department said. “One hundred and seventy-seven bids were followed up for the period under review. In order to ensure compliance, the dti requested the auditor-general to commence with an audit of expenditure during 2014/15 relating to tenders designated for local content.” The department has also roped in the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union (Sactwu) in tracking down non-compliant tenders in the clothing and textile sector. The government has identified certain sectors, sub-sectors and products for local production. These sectors include bus bodies, rail rolling stock, canned vegetables, certain pharmaceutical products, telecoms cables and clothing and footwear.

The department has listed a number of projects that have been given to local companies to meet this policy requirement. In Gauteng’s health department, a R121 million tender was given to 12 women co-operatives to supply linen to hospitals in the province. In the Eastern Cape, local companies were awarded a similar tender to supply linen to hospitals and district clinics. The police and Gauteng’s department of infrastructure also awarded tenders worth R8.8m to local companies to supply furniture to them. Since this policy was introduced more than 700 buses have been manufactured and assembled in South Africa by local companies to improve the public transport system in major cities. The department said measures were being taken to improve the involvement of local companies in the awarding of tenders to comply with the public procurement policy.

In addition, the department has been involved in the training of officials from various state entities on the implementation of and compliance with the local content policy on government tenders.