Author Archives: Geo Quinot

An updated version of the Bibliography on Public Procurement Law and Regulation has been published by the Public Procurement Research Group (PPRG) at the University of Nottingham under the supervision of Prof Sue Arrowsmith QC (Hon). The update covers materials up to the end of 2018.

APLU has been a collaborator on the development and maintenance of the bibliography from its outset in 2011 and again worked closely with the PPRG to update the African section of the 2019 bibliography.

The bibliography aims to list in a comprehensive manner reading in the English language on public procurement law and regulation. As such, it provides an invaluable tool for the study of public procurement law and provides an excellent starting point for any research project in this field of law. The bibliography is freely available at the link above.

APLU’s Sope Williams-Elegbe is the Vice-Chair (Africa) of the Debarment and Exclusions Subcommittee (the Subcommittee) of the International Bar Association’s Anti- Corruption Committee.

In cooperation with the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank Group, and Le Bureau de l’inspecteur general de la Ville de Montréal, the Subcommittee is conducting research into national suspension & debarment systems. To launch the survey, the Subcommittee on 18 March 2020 presented a webinar titled “The Global Exclusion Survey: A Look at Suspension and Debarment Systems from around the World.” Sope was one of the panellists on the webinar, a recording of which can be found here.

The survey can be accessed here.

APLU’s Sope Williams-Elegbe brought a public procurement perspective to deliberations on blockchain in Africa at the Blockchain Africa 2020 conference. She presented on “Public Procurement, Corruption and Blockchain Technology: A Preliminary Inquiry” at the conference held in Sandton, Johannesburg on 12 March 2020. More information on the conference can be found here.

The long-awaited South African draft Public Procurement Bill was published for public comment on 19 February 2020. One of the main aims of the draft statute is “to create a single regulatory framework for public procurement and eliminate fragmentation in laws which deal with procurement in the public sector”.  The draft Bill proposes a range of reforms to the South African procurement system, including

• the creation of a Public Procurement Regulator,
• repealing the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act and with it the entire current approach to preferential procurement, replacing it with a new, broad preferential procurement framework to be determined by the Minister of Finance by way of regulation,
• introducing a new remedies regime that includes reconsideration at entity level, provincial level and national level, with a standstill period, and a new Public Procurement Tribunal, which will have to be approached for review of procurement decisions prior to instituting judicial review applications
• explicitly regulating infrastructure procurement and PPPs, and
• replacing the current local government procurement rules (the Bill proposes repealing the entire chapter 11 of the MFMA).

Comments are open until 30 June 2020.

Details on the draft Bill can be found on the website of National Treasury.

On 22 January 2020, Sope Williams-Elegbe presented on the subject of “Public Procurement and Sustainable Development: A South African Perspective” at the  Southern Africa Law Teachers Conference, the gathering of all law teachers in Southern Africa, held in Skukuza, Kruger National Park.