In 2016, APLU in collaboration with the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung in South Africa, designed and piloted a training programme in public procurement law for staff of the Office of the Public Protector of South Africa. The initiative was conceived by Deputy Public Protector, Adv Kevin Malunga, who invited APLU to offer its assistance in strengthening the capacity of especially investigators at the Office of the Public Protector in the area of public procurement law.
Participants at the Pretoria Head Office
Participants at the Pretoria Head Office, 2016.
The pilot programme consisted of four units offered over a six month period in periodic contact sessions. The success of the pilot created the basis for training to be rolled out to provincial offices of the Public Protector between 2017 and 2019 in one-week block sessions. By the end of 2019, all investigators in all regional offices had been trained in public procurement law.
Participants of the Eastern Cape office.
Northern Cape and Free State participants.
Participants of the North West offices.
Participants from the Public Protector’s Limpopo offices
Participants of the Public Protector’s Mpumalanga office.
The programme consisted of the following four units:
- Introduction to public procurement law; global perspective on public procurement law, constitutional and legislative framework for public procurement
- Procurement methods and adjudication of public tenders
- Public procurement remedies
- Corruption and public procurement
The outcomes of the programme were to develop an appreciation for:
- The notion of public procurement law;
- The distinction between public procurement law and other fields impacting on public procurement;
- The regulation of public procurement in global perspective;
- The general legal framework in South Africa in terms of which public procurement law exists;
- The main statutory instruments governing public procurement in South Africa:
- o Public Finance Management Act 1 of 1999 & regulations
o Local Government: Municipal Finance Management Act 56 of 2003 & regulations
o Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act 5 of 2000 & regulations
o Construction Industry Development Board Act 38 of 2000 & regulations
o National Land Transport Act 5 of 2009 & regulations
o State Information Technology Agency Act 88 of 1998 & regulations - The scope of public procurement law in South Africa:
- o What type of transactions are covered
o Which institutions are covered
o What stages of procurement are covered - The main legal requirements for a valid public procurement
- The different methods of procurement provided for in South African law;
- The main legal requirements for a valid public procurement within each of these procedures;
- The particular legal requirements pertaining to the various stages of competitive bidding
- The different remedies provided for in South African law to enforce public procurement rules;
- The main mechanisms by means of which these remedies are implemented
- the ways in which South African law responds to corruption in public procurement;
- the various legal mechanisms that exist in South African law to tackle corruption in public procurement specifically;
- typical forms of corruption in public procurement and how to identify their occurrence in particular contexts;
- considerations when recommending measures against procurement corruption.
2018 Participants portal: FS & NC