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APLU in collaboration with the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung and the Office of the Public Protector of South Africa, concluded the 2018 series of public procurement law training for investigators of the Public Protector’s office from 26 to 30 November 2018 in Mahikeng. All investigators of the various North West offices of the Public Protector gathered in Mahikeng for a week-long training programme.

This was the third week-long course offered to Public Protector investigators in 2018, the previous having being held in East London (all Eastern Cape offices) and Bloemfontein (Free State and all Northern Cape offices) respectively. A total of seven provinces in addition to the Head Office have now benefited from this training programme that started in 2016 and is expected to be concluded in 2019, when all investigators would have received in-depth training on public procurement law.

You are cordially invited to the following seminar/ webinar

“The pursuit of sustainable development objectives through public food procurement: literature and practice’’

Thursday, November 29th, 2018 | 15:00 – 16:30 (Rome time)

FAO, Austria Room (C 250)

To participate in the webinar online, please follow the link: http://fao.adobeconnect.com/rgl2lahp23t1/

Presented by

Prof. Geo Quinot, Stellenbosch University, South Africa

Luana Swensson, FAO (FAO/ESN)

With intervention of Luisa Cruz (FAO/LEGN)

Jointly organized by the Nutrition and Food Systems Division (ESN) and the Development Law Branch of the Legal Office (LEGN) of the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations

Inclusive public food procurement initiatives – such as home-grown school feeding programmes – are relevant policy instruments to pursue sustainable development objectives, including the support of smallholder farmers and their integration into formal markets.

They are based on the premise that public institutions, when using their procurement power to award contracts, can go beyond the immediate scope of simply responding to the state’s procurement needs by addressing additional social, environment or economic policy goals. Their implementation, however, requires a conducive and aligned public procurement policy and legal frameworks.

In this seminar we will discuss the promotion of sustainable development objectives through public procurement under two perspectives: the literature and the practice. We will present how the topic has been addressed by the prominent legal literature as well as its practical implementation through FAO’s work in supporting governments in developing a conducive policy and legal environment for the implementation of government-led School Food and Nutrition initiatives. The seminar will be also an opportunity to present the upcoming publication on “Aligning policy and legal frameworks for supporting smallholder farming through public food procurement: the case of home-grown school feeding programmes”, jointly published by FAO and UNDP (IPC-IG) as well as the forthcoming FAO Legal Guide on School Food and Nutrition.

Biography of the presenters

Geo Quinot, LLD is the director of the African Procurement Law Unit and a professor in the Department of Public Law at Stellenbosch University, South Africa.   His work focuses on administrative law and public procurement regulation. He has published widely in these fields, including the book, edited with Sue Arrowsmith, Public Procurement Regulation in Africa (2013) published by Cambridge University Press. Quinot often advises suppliers and organs of state on administrative law and procurement law questions.

Luana Swensson, PhD serves as an international consultant in the Nutrition and Food Systems Division (ESN) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Her work focuses on multidisciplinary policy-oriented research and technical support for the design and implementation of FAO projects on the areas of public procurement and school food and nutrition.  She holds a Master degree in International Business Law; a Ph.D in Economics and Business Law (Comparative Law) from the University of Rome “La Sapienza” and a multidisciplinary post-doctoral degree from European University Institute.

Luisa Cruz, M.A. is a lawyer with an expertise in international and development law. She serves as a legal consultant in the Development Law Branch (LEGN) of the Legal Office in FAO. Her work involves providing legal advice to Member countries on food security and nutrition, social protection, and agriculture. She is the main author of the forthcoming FAO’s Legal Guide on School Food and Nutrition which aims to provide national law-and policy- makers with guidance and examples of state practice for developing or strengthening national legal frameworks on school food and nutrition (SFN).

On 8-9 November 2018, APLU Deputy Director, Prof Sope Williams-Elegbe, joined 14 other experts from around the world in Vienna, Austria, to develop university level modules on anti-corruption for the United Nations’ Education for Justice Initiative (E4J) under the banner of the UNODC.

The meeting brought together 15 academics from different disciplines and regions with expertise on various aspects of anti-corruption.

The aim of the meeting was to discuss the development of the E4J University Modules on Anti-Corruption and to provide the module developers with an understanding of the E4J initiative, the work of UNODC’s Corruption and Economic Crime Branch (CEB) and the objectives for the modules.

The participants discussed with UNODC experts various aspects of the modules, including content issues, relevant international norms, standards and tools as well as cross-cutting issues and potential linkages between the modules and the work of the CEB.

The multidisciplinary insights shared at this meeting are expected to contribute to the development of a series of 14 modules designed to support lecturers in delivering anti-corruption education in diverse disciplinary and regional settings.

On 1 November 2018, APLU launched its latest publication, entitled Public Procurement Regulation for 21st Century Africa, edited by Sope Williams-Elegbe and Geo Quinot and published by Juta & Co.

The book is an edited collection of 15 chapters written by academics, practitioners and officials working in public procurement law. It investigates a number of key themes to foster an understanding of public procurement law in the context of contemporary Africa, in particular in relation to the close ties between public procurement law and pressing policy issues: from development plans to donor aid and international lending, to anti-corruption agendas and capacity challenges, to public finance management, enforceable remedies under the rule of law, and human rights.

The authors of the book draw on their varied experience from scholarship, government, international bodies, NGOs and private practice to provide a range of perspectives that shed light on this vital field of law.

At the launch, Adv Kevin Malunga, Deputy Public Protector of the Republic of South Africa, who also wrote the foreword to the book, reflected on the key role of procurement law in enhancing good public governance and the challenges that South Africa in particular continue to face in this regard.

Pictured at the launch: (from left) Adv Kevin Malunga, Prof Sope Williams-Elegbe, Mr Stephen Allcock of Juta and Prof Geo Quinot

The contents of the book include:

• Foreword: Public procurement regulation suited for 21st century Africa: Reform, governance and innovation – Advocate Kevin S Malunga, Deputy Public Protector of the Republic, South Africa
• Table of Cases
• Table of Statutes
• Table of Abbreviations
• The new challenges and opportunities for public procurement regulation in Africa – Geo Quinot & Sope Williams-Elegbe
• Public procurement law in Africa within a developmental framework – Geo Quinot
• Development aid procurement and the UNGPs on Business and Human Rights: Challenges and opportunities to move towards the new frontier of ‘buying justice’ – Annamaria La Chimia 
• Economic and legal perspectives on the use of horizontal public procurement policies to drive industrial development and economic transformation in South Africa – Tebogo Makube 
• Corruption, fraud and African procurement – Moustapha Diallo
• The use of civil activism in combating corruption in public procurement: A South African perspective – Stephen de la Harpe
• Curbing corruption in Africa through the African Integrity Fund: A case study of firms sanctioned – the African Development Bank – Sanjeev Narrainen
• Self-cleaning in public procurement in Africa: Lessons from the European Union – Willard T Mugadza
• Weaponising transparency: Nigerian defence procurement reform as a counterterrorism strategy – Eva Anderson, Matthew T Page & Tom Keatinge
• Electronic procurement in Africa – Caroline Nicholas
• Construction procurement in South Africa: Capacity for procurement law or procurement law for capacity? – Allison Anthony
• The standstill period in South African public procurement – Justin Laing
• Supplier remedies under Namibia’s Public Procurement Act 15 of 2015 – Ester N Kuugongelwa
• The public procurement complaint and administrative review mechanism in Ghana – Dominic N Dagbanja
• Bidder and contractor remedies in procurements funded – the multilateral development banks: The case of the World Bank – Sope Williams-Elegbe
• Bibliography of Research on Public Procurement Regulation in Africa

The book is available from Juta at the following link.

On 25 October 2018, APLU Deputy Director, Prof Sope Williams-Elegbe, delivered her professorial inaugural lecture at Stellenbosch University. The lecture was titled “Public Procurement, Corruption and Blockchain Technology: A Preliminary (Legal) Inquiry”. A recording of the lecture can be viewed at the following link.

Prof Sope Williams-Elegbe, Deputy Director of APLU and Professor in the Stellenbosch University Department of Mercantile Law will on 25 October 2018 deliver her inaugural lecture with the title: “Public Procurement, Corruption and Blockchain Technology: A Preliminary (Legal) Inquiry”. The lecture will be live streamed at this link.

Quinot presenting at SmartProcurementWorld 2018.

Two APLU members, Dr Allison Anthony and Prof Geo Quinot, contributed to the 12th Annual SmartProcurementWorld Indaba held at Gallagher Convention Centre in Midrand, Johannesburg between 17 and 20 September 2018. This annual event attracts more than 500 visitors from all sectors of supply chain management, both in private and public sectors.

Dr Anthony hosted a technical round table in which she analysed a number of recent key judgments in the area of public procurement. These included cases dealing with

• Strict compliance with tender conditions
  • ABET Inspection Engineering (Pty) Ltd v The Petroleum Oil & Gas Corporation of South Africa
  • Overstrand Municipality v Water & Sanitation Services SA (Pty) Ltd
• Extension of tender validity period
  • Raubex Construction (Pty) Ltd Road Agency Limpopo SOC
• Time frame for challenging tender awards
  • Amandla GCF Construction CC v Municipal Manager of Saldanha Bay MunicipalityGallagher Convention Centre.

Prof Quinot made a presentation on the liability of procurement officials in the public sector. He highlighted the different areas of law in terms of which procurement officials can be held liable and discussed the requirements of each. He focused specifically on the new developments around holding administrators accountable for litigation costs where a public tender is challenged and found irregular by a court, as emerged from the High Court judgment in Westwood Insurance Brokers (Pty) Ltd v Ethekwini Municipality and Others (8221/16) [2017] ZAKZDHC 15 (5 April 2017)