Third of public entities not compliant with law
ELLANIE SMIT
WINDHOEK
Of 178 public entities, about 128 appear to have submitted annual procurement plans to the Procurement Policy Unit (PPU) for the 2020/2021 financial year.
That means roughly 72% of public entities have been compliant with the law, however nearly a third or about 28% of public entities have failed to file plans.
This is according to a new report by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) on procurement compliance concerns.
This edition of the Procurement Tracker Namibia examines records on what proportion of public entities have been complying with the reporting requirements of the Procurement Act of 2015.
In addition, it looks at recent controversies concerning the bypassing of the procurement law, the latest on government’s medical aid tender, and the publication of a new procurement reference guide.
The report by Frederico Links said since 2017, compliance with the Public Procurement Act has been a major challenge throughout the public procurement system.
“One of the areas that Procurement Tracker Namibia has been monitoring from the beginning is to what extent public entities have been giving force to some of the core principles of the law, and especially the principle of transparency,” it said.
Legal prescripts
It was noted that the best way of tracking - whether the principle of transparency was being enlivened - was by monitoring whether public entities compile and provide access to their annual procurement plans as per the legal prescripts.
“For financial year 2020/2021, many public entities have complied with the law in terms of submitting annual procurement plans and quarterly procurement reports to the PPU in the finance ministry, thus providing a level of transparency. While still problematic in many aspects, that has not been seen on the public procurement landscape to date.”
It further noted that while many public entities have submitted plans to the PPU and the PPU has made these plans available through its webpage, many of them still do not have these plans on their own websites, and some don’t even have websites to start with.
“This lack of meaningful access to procurement information clearly violates the spirit of the Public Procurement Act.”
The report also pointed out that while there is somewhat high compliance with submitting annual plans, there is still
seemingly consistently low compliance with submitting quarterly reports.
It further said that by the start of this month, almost half-way through the 2021/22 financial year, just 58 public entities, out of the roughly 178, appeared to have submitted annual plans to the PPU.
WINDHOEK
Of 178 public entities, about 128 appear to have submitted annual procurement plans to the Procurement Policy Unit (PPU) for the 2020/2021 financial year.
That means roughly 72% of public entities have been compliant with the law, however nearly a third or about 28% of public entities have failed to file plans.
This is according to a new report by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) on procurement compliance concerns.
This edition of the Procurement Tracker Namibia examines records on what proportion of public entities have been complying with the reporting requirements of the Procurement Act of 2015.
In addition, it looks at recent controversies concerning the bypassing of the procurement law, the latest on government’s medical aid tender, and the publication of a new procurement reference guide.
The report by Frederico Links said since 2017, compliance with the Public Procurement Act has been a major challenge throughout the public procurement system.
“One of the areas that Procurement Tracker Namibia has been monitoring from the beginning is to what extent public entities have been giving force to some of the core principles of the law, and especially the principle of transparency,” it said.
Legal prescripts
It was noted that the best way of tracking - whether the principle of transparency was being enlivened - was by monitoring whether public entities compile and provide access to their annual procurement plans as per the legal prescripts.
“For financial year 2020/2021, many public entities have complied with the law in terms of submitting annual procurement plans and quarterly procurement reports to the PPU in the finance ministry, thus providing a level of transparency. While still problematic in many aspects, that has not been seen on the public procurement landscape to date.”
It further noted that while many public entities have submitted plans to the PPU and the PPU has made these plans available through its webpage, many of them still do not have these plans on their own websites, and some don’t even have websites to start with.
“This lack of meaningful access to procurement information clearly violates the spirit of the Public Procurement Act.”
The report also pointed out that while there is somewhat high compliance with submitting annual plans, there is still
seemingly consistently low compliance with submitting quarterly reports.
It further said that by the start of this month, almost half-way through the 2021/22 financial year, just 58 public entities, out of the roughly 178, appeared to have submitted annual plans to the PPU.
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