PARLIAMENT is expected to sit today to craft amendments to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Act to formalise the introduction of bond notes and craft the Public Procurement and Disposal Bill expected to curb corruption in procurement.
BY VENERANDA LANGA
The House had taken a break in order to allow Zanu PF legislators to attend their just-ended party conference and to enable MPs to critically analyse the 2017 National Budget before passing it.
The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Finance has already engaged the public to air their views on the two Bills.
Although bond notes are already in circulation, the amendments to the RBZ Act will regularise the currency, which was introduced through the Presidential Powers (Temporary Measures) Act.
The Public Procurement and Disposal Bill is currently in the first reading stage in the National Assembly and has been referred to the Parliamentary Legal Committee to check for its constitutionality before it is debated in the second reading stage.
The Bill will abolish the State Procurement Board and replace it with the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe.
“This Bill will repeal the Procurement Act and abolish the State Procurement Board. In place of the Board it will set up a new body to be called the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe, which will not conduct procurement proceedings itself, but instead will oversee and regulate procurement activities conducted by government ministries, statutory bodies (parastatals) and local authorities,” reads the draft Bill.
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“These bodies are called ‘procuring entities’, and the Bill will also set out the procedures to be followed and the steps to be taken in procurement proceedings to ensure fairness, transparency and honesty.”
Currently, procurement processes are mired in controversy, with several reports of graft in awards of multimillion contracts. The new procurement law will include a clause, which outlines the functions of the authority that will supervise public procurement proceedings to ensure transparency, fairness, honesty, cost-effectiveness and competition.
“Ancillary functions (of the authority) include advising and assisting procuring entities, issuing directives and guidelines, maintaining databases on procurement, and registering bidders and contractors. In exercising its functions, the authority will have to be impartial and transparent and will have to observe the rules of natural justice.”
The new authority will also be able to declare persons ineligible to participate as bidders in procurement proceedings for up to three years if the authority is satisfied that they have been guilty of corruption or fraud.
