Author Archives: Geo Quinot

A strategic public procurement paradigm for South Africa

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South Africa’s public procurement regime, established in the context of public sector reform initiatives of the late 1990s and early 2000s, requires reform. The drafting process for new public procurement legislation has been a long and winding one, and much of it has taken place beyond public scrutiny. In 2022 a revised version of the 2020 Public Procurement Bill was introduced into the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac). The deliberations in Nedlac were attended, at the request of business and labour, by a small number of individuals and organisations with expertise in public procurement. At the request of Nedlac social partners (business and labour), this group of individuals and organisations were formalised to provide technical expertise on the Bill and styled as a Joint Strategic Resource (JSR), coordinated by the Public Affairs Research Institute (PARI), and including the African Procurement Law Unit (APLU), the Wits School of Construction Economics and Management, and Corruption Watch. This paper explains the strategic procurement paradigm that underpins the JSR Draft of the Bill. We argue that the JSR Bill demonstrates that strategic procurement is appropriate to the South African context for adoption and implementation as the key concept in a comprehensive public procurement statute.

We worked for a statute that would provide for public procurement which is developmental in economic nature and outlook, aspiring to expand the productive base of the economy and to support innovation and investment. This meant that preferential procurement policies (including local content) were part and parcel of the statute. The legal architecture of the National Treasury Public Procurement Bill of 2022 contains little hope of moving away from a repetition of the lack of success of the earlier generations of regulatory instruments in this field. We argue this is not so much the fault of OCPO drafting, but rather of the fundamental choice not to exercise through Parliament the policy making power of the state to adopt, promulgate, and enforce a comprehensive public procurement statute. The Bill should itself contain clear and accessible substantive policy choices in this area and not delegate and allow for such decisions to be taken (or fail to be taken) in the sub-units of National Treasury.

Download the paper here.

DIRECT BANK TRANSFER (EFT)

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Please use the following details to pay via direct bank transfer (EFT):

Account details (when making payment from within South Africa)

Account name: University of Stellenbosch

Bank: Standard Bank

Branch name: Stellenbosch

Branch Code: 050610

Account number: 072247959

Reference: 4503 [YOUR INITIAL AND SURNAME]

Account details (when making payments from outside South Africa)

Account name: University of Stellenbosch

Bank: First National Bank

Branch name: Cape Town

Account number: 62107177083

Swift Code: FIRNZAJJ796

Reference: 4503 [YOUR INITIAL AND SURNAME]

First workshop on a national conversation on procurement reform in South Africa

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The African Procurement Law Unit (APLU) initiated a national conversation on public procurement reform in South Africa during a two-day gathering in Johannesburg from 27 to 28 February 2023.

The initiative is a response to the call of the Zondo Commission of Inquiry into State Capture which noted that “any serious attempt to address the problems which beset public procurement must go well beyond state capture … the process of reform requires a coherent and comprehensive plan of action which needs to bring the public and private sectors together in a joint initiative to restore proper standards and discipline within the procurement system.”

The event drew over 120 delegates from the South African public procurement/supply chain management community to discuss all aspects of public procurement with the aim of framing a vision for the future of public procurement in South Africa. Delegates came from all levels of government, including key national departments such as Treasury; Justice and Constitutional Development; Public Works and Infrastructure; Trade, Industry and Competition and Defence as well as from public bodies such as the NRF; Public Service Commission; SARS; Competition Commission and SANRAL. Suppliers to the government as well as supplier organisations such as Consulting Engineers South Africa and the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa were present. Participating NGOs included Corruption Watch; the Legal Resources Centre; Amabhungane; Open Ownership, OUTA and the Public Service Accountability Monitor as well as some of South Africa’s leading procurement academics and lawyers.

The topics discussed ranged from the forthcoming public procurement legislation for South Africa, how best to deal with the restriction of poor performing and corrupt suppliers to government, the liability of public officials for procurement failures, the need for the state to buy local goods in order to support local industrial development, how to accelerate transformation via public procurement practices, increased use of technology to improve efficiencies in procurement and to reduce abuse and how best to deal with challenges to tender awards.

Prof Geo Quinot, APLU director and professor of law at SU, noted in his opening remarks that “public procurement is the backbone of service delivery in our country, of making real the aspirations of our constitution, of driving economic development. By coming together, all of us can strengthen that backbone to the benefit of everyone who live in our country.” Click here to listen to the full opening remarks.

Smaller workstreams at the workshop

The issues raised during the plenary engagements were categorised under five themes and discussed in more detail by smaller working groups. The themes are institutional arrangements; procurement integrity; targeted procurement; procedures & efficiency; and dispute resolution. The South African public procurement community intends to contribute to the ongoing reforms of the public procurement system and following the two-day workshop, the national conversation continues by way of workstreams where delegates will continue to explore the themes raised in the working groups.  For each theme, an issue paper will be collaboratively developed to set out inter alia the nature of the issue, its role in the procurement system, possible ways in which it could be regulated, suggested operating procedures and standard documents, and the skills required to manage the issue. The issue papers will include case studies, from South Africa and beyond, on how the issue has been successfully addressed. These issue papers will be discussed at further gatherings, including another national workshop in June. The outcomes can feed into the public consultation processes that will accompany new procurement legislation, and the crafting of regulations and other implementation instruments under a new procurement statute, once passed. Generally, the initiative aims to assist all stakeholders in improving procurement practice – from the regulators tasked with designing and overseeing the procurement system; to the leadership of organs of state in using procurement as a strategic tool; to procurement officials in their daily acquisition functions; to businesses wanting to supply goods and services to the state.

The South African procurement community believes that by bringing together the experiences of officials awarding tenders, of enterprises selling to the state, of regulators monitoring the spending of public money, of NGOs focusing on the impact of procurement on civil society and of academics researching and training on all aspects of public procurement, the South African society can collaboratively construct a fit-for-purpose procurement system that can deliver best value for money. 

​Listen to the closing remarks by Prof Quinot at the end of the first workshop at this link.

UNCITRAL Days in Africa

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UNCITRAL Days are a series of events co-organised with institutions of higher learning to raise awareness of the work of UNCITRAL amongst the next generations of legal thinkers and policymakers, thereby furthering its efforts to promote the progressive harmonization and modernization of international trade and commercial law.

The theme of the 2022 UNCITRAL Days in Africa was “Modernization and harmonization of international commercial law framework in the AfCFTA context”.

On 3 November 2022 from 9:00 – 12:30 (UTC+2), the African Procurement Law Unit at Stellenbosch University co-hosted with UNCITRAL an UNCITRAL Africa Day workshop focusing on the public procurement dimension of trade law harmonization in the AfCFTA context.

For more details, including recordings of the presentations, click on the following link.

Seminar: Advancing women’s rights through public infrastructure procurement

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Despite vast progress in the field of women’s rights, women still experience extreme discrimination in the form of gender pay gaps in workplaces, gender-based violence and harassment and time poverty due to unpaid domestic work. Women in rural areas travel long distances to access fuel and water, they suffer from air pollution caused by heating for the purpose of cooking and cleaning and are in danger based on a lack of lighting at public transport areas and outside public bathrooms. The latter indicates that infrastructure in South Africa does not adequately provide for the needs for women.


Public infrastructure is acquired by way of public procurement, which constitutes approximately 22% of a country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). With infrastructure being the bedrock of any country, the procurement of infrastructure holds tremendous economic significance. For the last two to three
decades, procurement has been leveraged to advance many social objectives, including the advancement of women-owned businesses. However, this topic in particular has seen slow development the world over.

This seminar will be based on an upcoming collaborative paper between the academy and practice in the form of UNISA, George Washington University International and Comparative Law Studies and International Budget Partnership South Africa where solutions to advancing women’s rights in infrastructure procurement will be considered. Sanitation access in South Africa’s informal
settlements will be explored as a case for gender-inclusive procurement.

Download Full Details and Programme HereDownload

Ms Caroline James

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Caroline James is a South African lawyer, currently working as the South Africa Project Coordinator at the Open Contracting Partnership (OCP). She has BA(Hons) and LLB degrees from the University of the Witwatersrand, and an MA degree in global development studies from Queen’s University in Canada. She has worked on freedom of expression and access to information issues at the Southern Africa Litigation Centre, in Johannesburg, and is an editor at Global Freedom of Expression, based at Columbia University in New York. She has also worked at Corruption Watch in Johannesburg. Her interest in open contracting and transparent public procurement comes from its intersection between governance, accountability, anti-corruption and access to information and so reflects a variety of her professional and academic interests. She is excited about the partnership between OCP and the South African National Treasury and its potential to transform South Africa’s procurement system into one which can give effect to the constitutional promises of a system that is fair, equitable, transparent, competitive and cost-effective.

Steve Guppy

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Steve Guppy, is the Director of Procurement at Crown Agents, one of the world’s leading international development organizations specializing in public procurement and supply chain management.

Over the last 20 years, he and his team have worked alongside 12 African countries* to help strengthen national procurement systems.  The range of support they provide includes:

  • diagnostics and assessment
  • drafting/revision of procurement laws and regulations
  • advice on national architecture for public procurement
  • strategic planning and road mapping for reform
  • establishment of, and ongoing support to, regulatory/oversight bodies
  • preparation of operational guidelines, manuals and standard bidding documents/templates
  • capacity development, including supporting qualification and professionalisation of the procurement cadre
  • stakeholder engagement and sensitization
  • specific strategic procurement initiatives such as e-procurement, value for money assessment, compliance and performance monitoring, framework contracting and sustainable procurement

They have also provided technical assistance directly to institutions such as the African Union, African Development Bank and the United Nations to enhance the procurement systems and processes within those organisations.

*Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Frank Mante

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Frank Mante, Chief Executive Officer, Public Procurement Authority, Ghana

Frank Mante was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) in November, 2021, by His Excellency the President of Ghana. Prior to his appointment, he served as a Deputy Chief Executive -Technical/ Operations at the PPA in July, 2019 and was eventually appointed as Acting Chief Executive from August 2019 until his appoint as substantive Chief Executive Officer.

Prior to joining PPA, Frank served as the Procurement Director at the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA), Ghana and he was responsible for all the procurement and contract administration activities under the Power Compact (Compact II) with total procurement estimated at US$ 535million. Frank worked successfully with the support of the Procurement Agent, the Procurement Unit and the various project units in delivering the required results.

Frank also worked with Crown Agents Ghana Limited between 2012-2017 as the Project Procurement Manger, Team Leader and eventually Country Manager during which period, he provided procurement support to DFID, USAID, JSI, AfDB, Ecobank Group and many public institutions in Ghana.

Frank has over 25 years’ working experience in Ghana, the West African sub-region and the United Kingdom, having worked in different institutions. In addition to procurement, he has a background in banking, marketing/sales and he has lectured in procurement and supply chain management related courses in in the following  Universities in Ghana namely: University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), Ghana Telecommunication University, Institute of Local Government Studies, University College of Management Studies among others.

Frank holds the following professional and academic qualifications: Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (FCIPS, CIPS-UK), Certified Professional in Supply Management (CPSM) from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM-USA), Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CMILT,CILT-UK), Master of Laws (LLM) in Public Procurement Law and Policy at the School of Law, University of Nottingham, Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Marketing from the University of Leicester-UK, LLB from the Mountcrest University College, BA (Hons) in Banking, Economics with Law from London Metropolitan University, Diploma in Management (Banking & Finance) from the University of Leicester, Higher National Diploma (HND) in Purchasing and Supply and a Teacher’s Certificate ‘A’ from the Tamale Training College.

Frank is passionate about Sustainable Public Procurement from a developing country perspective.

Tania Perich Iglesias

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Tania Perich Iglesias, Director of ChileCompra, Chile

Ms. Tania Perich Iglesias is qualified as a Civil Engineer from the University of Chile, holds a Diploma in Marketing from the Adolfo Ibáñez University and is certified as Director by the Institute of Directors of London. Since October 2019, she has been ChileCompra´s national director, the agency responsible for the administration of Chile’s purchasing information system, www.mercadopublico.cl, through which more than 15 billion dollars annually are traded for purchases made by 850 public organizations and more than 100,000 trading suppliers.

During this period, Tania Perich has led the process of modernization of public procurement with emphasis on the opening of data for better completeness and greater understanding, promoting efficiency in contracting through new purchasing tools such as Compra Ágil, preferably aimed at micro and small businesses. Likewise, it has generated changes from the innovation and digital transformation of the platform with improvements in the Registry of Suppliers, Contract Management, Interoperability of systems with other State agencies, allowing to streamline and simplify processes, particularly access to information and payment management and a new model of framework agreement.

From the private sector, she served as Country Manager for Chile and later as Regional Vice President of SAP Ariba, a world leader in Digital Transformation and Technological Innovation, developing strategies and methodologies for the implementation of B2B e-commerce platforms.

She has also implemented strategies for the Management of Suppliers, Analysis and Administration of Expenditure and Strategic Planning in Supply Chain , among other instances within her more than 30 years of experience in industries such as Construction, Banking, Mining and Technology in the national and international market.

Faith Waigwa

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Faith Waigwa, Chairperson of the Public Procurement Administrative Review Board of Kenya

Ms. Waigwa is the Managing Partner and Head of Real Estate, Banking, Corporate and Commercial Department at NOW Advocates LLP. She is an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya of over 15 years post admission experience in private practice and has cut her niche in her area of practice for having an eye for details.

She is highly experienced with vast knowledge having actively been involved in real estate, construction, infrastructure, energy, mining transactions and has an admirable capacity to handle complex legal matters that fall under her docket. Her tasks include transfer of proprietary interest, registration of encumbrances and inhibitions, project construction advisory, Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) formation and management, securities advisory, contract and risk management, regulatory compliance, public procurement and asset disposal advisory, corporate restructuring, public private partnership advisory. She holds a Bachelor of Laws degree (LLB) (Hons) from the University of Nairobi and a postgraduate Diploma in Law from Kenya School of Law. She is currently a postgraduate student at the University of Nairobi pursuing a Master of Laws degree (LL.M) in Environment and Natural Resources Law; with a specific interest in Regulation of Power and Energy.  She is also a postgraduate student at Strathmore University pursuing a Master of Laws Degree (LL.M) in Oil & Gas.

Outside the firm, Ms. Waigwa serves as the Chairperson of the Public Procurement Administrative Review Board, a central independent procurement appeals review board under the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act, 2015 of the Laws of Kenya and has previously held the position of the Vice President of the Law Society of Kenya and the Deputy Secretary General of the East Africa Law Society.