The Mail & Guardian reports that members of the Black Business Council (BBC) have renewed their calls for the approach to black economic empowerment in public procurement in South Africa, as implemented under the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act of 2000, to be revisited. In particular some members have called for the Act to be scrapped. One of the main concerns is that the Act only provides for price preferences and then only at a fairly small margin (20% for contracts under R1 million and 10% for contracts above). Members argue that this measure is insufficient to promote true empowerment through procurement.
Tag Archives: government tender
Dr Allison Anthony
Following the successful completion of her pioneering LLM study in the regulation of construction procurement in the public sector, Allison registered in 2016 for a doctoral study to continue her research in this field. In her doctoral dissertation, Allison asked whether a relational understanding of construction procurement in South Africa assists in formulating regulation for this area of public procurement. She successfully completed her study in 2017 and was awarded the doctoral degree in 2018. Allison is currently a senior lecturer in the University of South Africa School of Law. In 2021, she published the first dedicated academic work on construction procurement law in South Africa with Juta & Co.
PAST PROJECTS
LLM PROJECT: CONSTRUCTION PROCUREMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA
Student: Ms A Anthony
Supervisor: Prof P Bolton
University: Stellenbosch University
Status: Completed in 2013, the thesis is available here >>
LLD PROJECT: THE LEGAL REGULATION OF CONSTRUCTION PROCUREMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA AS A RELATIONAL CONSTRUCT
Student: Ms A Anthony
Supervisor: Prof P Bolton & Prof G Quinot
University: Stellenbosch University
Status: Completed in 2017, the dissertation is available here >>
Draft Treasury Regulations published
The South African National Treasury has published new draft Treasury Regulations under the Public Finance Management Act 1 of 1999 to replace the current 2005 Treasury Regulations. Included in the new draft is an entire new section (Part 7) dealing with Supply Chain Management and setting out in significant more detail than the current Treasury Regulations the legal rules for public procurement. The draft aims to give more explicit content to the five constitutional principles governing public procurement, namely fairness, equity, transparency, competitiveness and cost-effectiveness. Noteworthy developments are strict rules about tender awards to persons in the service of the state, mandatory participation in transversal term contracts arranged by the relevant treasury and extensive formal reporting requirements of all procurement transactions.
The draft regulations can be found here >>
APPRRU’s comments on these regulations are available here>>
Quinot appointed to Ministerial task teams
Quinot
Prof Geo Quinot, director of APPRRU, was recently appointed by South African Minister of Health, Dr A Motsoaledi, to two task teams in the National Department of Health focusing on procurement of medial diagnostics and pharmaceuticals respectively. The task teams will advise the Minister inter alia on the establishment of regulatory processes within the Department of Health for future procurements.
Public Procurement: Global Revolution VI Conference, 24-25 June 2013
Registration is now open for Public Procurement: Global Revolution VI Conference to be held in Nottingham, England on 24 & 25 June 2013. This international conference, organised by the Public Procurement Research Group, University of Nottingham and on which APPRRU is a collaborator, will involve in-depth discussion of current trends and new research in the area of public procurement regulation globally. Speakers include academics, practitioners and representatives of key organisations working in public procurement from many different countries. The conference will also include a focus on public procurement regulation in Africa.
More information, including registration, is available here >>
South African Treasury to create a procurement oversight unit
On 23 July 2012, South African Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan announced that the treasury would create an oversight unit on public procurement. The establishment of this oversight unit would be aimed at actively enforcing supply chain management processes and would include the appointment of a chief procurement officer.
Gordhan stated that transactions of a particular size or type may be subject to scrutiny. He further announced that the treasury would develop IT systems which would enable the active monitoring of compliance with financial management requirements. These systems would enable the treasury to access information regarding instances of public procurement.
The move comes after the publication of a recent report by the South African Auditor-General Terence Nombembe on the results of local government audits. The report found that only 5% of municipal entities had achieved clean audits for the 2010/2011 financial year. The report further identified the lack of competencies and skills, as well as the lack of consequences for poor performance as the root causes of the troubling audit results.
Gordhan emphasised the need for government to demonstrate that poor performance and non-adherence to legal requirements in public procurement would be met with more severe consequences.
State Commercial Activity: A Legal Framework
By: Geo Quinot
Juta (2009)
State Commercial Activity – A Legal Framework analyses the state’s conduct as a market participant from a legal perspective. 
It focuses on the judicial control of such state conduct and puts forward a legal framework in terms of which to understand state commercial activity, including public procurement.
The book focuses on South African law, but includes comparative perspectives from English, German and French law.