MUTARE- Transparency International Zimbabwe in partnership with Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (PRAZ) have launched a procurement handbook to ease public procurement burden on parastatals and government departments.
Speaking during a virtual inception and launch of the hand book, TIZ representative Nqobani Tshabangu said the handbook simplifies complex procurement requirements while ensuring transparency and accountable spending in public entities.
“There are gaps which are emanating in the procurement cycle because many officials fail to understand the complex requirements of procurement.
“To ensure that we close this information asymmetry, we have launched this handbook to serve as a practical guide to those seeking to enhance transparency and accountability in the procurement of goods and service by government,” he said.
Cliff Gondo from PRAZ said the authority was instituting sweeping reforms towards ‘professionalizing procurement as an ongoing process to enhance efficiency.
“With a handbook we would want to simplify the language, it’s about simplification and making policy makers understand how public procurement should be done.
“The problematic areas that we have found are that the other people involved in procurement cycle, which are not necessarily procurement practitioners, but officials were having challenges in understanding.
“In terms of assisting them we felt there was a need for that practical guide in the procurement cycle of the procurement in public entities under a broad reform program we have engaged in,” said Gondo.
He added, “For the practitioners we are working on another program that will help the practitioners to be more efficient broader Public Finance Management reform with technical support from partners.”
Cornelius Dube, a procurement specialist said because of the huge sums of money involved (especially for public infrastructure projects) there is a lack of transparency, which can easily be abused as public procurement has inherent risk of corruption.
Dube, who consulted in the design of the handbook, said government should also augment civic society efforts by embracing an e-procurement system and increase inter-agency coordination and common standards.
“Key government institutions should have inter-coordinated mechanisms, the authority can create a one stop online facility for offices the Deeds Office, ZIMRA and the RBZ, for example though an e-procurement system.
“The procurement authority should lead the process. In most countries, the e-procurement is managed by the procurement authority.
“It is also critical for PRAZ to start developing expertise in designing e-procurement compliant systems,” said Dube.
