PPADB battles to stamp out tender corruption
Isaac Pinielo | Friday July 7, 2017 17:19
According to the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC), public tendering corruption has become so rampant and embedded in the country that it has now become the bane of the economic development agenda.
Even the global anti-corruption coalition, Transparency International (TI), indicated that while Botswana is internationally rated as the least corrupt, the country is still faced with some challenges with regard to corruption.
It says nepotism and patronage pervade the government sector, which makes corruption a very high risk for public tenders.
As a result, the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Board (PPADB) has adopted various measures to prevent and curb corruption in public procurement.
One such mechanism that the PPADB put in place for dealing with procurement corruption is to publish public procurement plans where Ministerial Tender Committees (MTCs) and District Administration Tender Committees (DATCs) are required to submit their annual procurement plans with the board for publishing.
The Board has also developed the whistle blowing policy whose aim is to provide a safe and secure avenue for PPADB employees, members of the public, contractors and other stakeholders disclose information which the whistleblower believes may show malpractice or impropriety. While most projects serve to grow the economy by creating employment or business opportunities, economic growth is said to be often derailed because of corruption.
Experts say corruption is the single most threat to the country’s socio-economic development and progress.
Speaking at the recent launch of an anonymous Tip off platform for PPADB, DCEC director general, Rose Seretse said despite the positive strides made by Botswana towards attaining democracy and human rights, corruption remains one of the greatest threats in the region as it degrades democracy, undermines the rule of law, distorts markets and stifles economic growth.
In addition, she said corruption denies many their rightful share of economic resources as it lines up the pockets of a few individuals at the expense of many.
An anti-corruption expert, Tymon Katlholo said public procurement systems are prone to allegations of corruption, adding that this is because naturally procurement attracts huge sums of money and that there is also fierce competition amongst contractors and suppliers for projects publicised for procurement.
“In many cases, there is lack of understanding of the procurement system by those who participate in the tendering process,” he said.
Katlholo, who is former DCEC boss, said there is also the issue of selfishness on the part of some participants in the procuring system where people would not just accept the reality that is brought about by the competition and the stringent requirements for compliance.
He said sometimes it is just a question of general inefficiency on the part of those who are charged with the responsibility of executing projects and people start to draw their own conclusions looking at the poor quality of the projects.
“This is because people compare the project with the concept of value for money,” he said.
Katlholo added that a project not completed to expected standards naturally attracts allegations of corrupt practices than just mere issues of inefficiency on the part of those charged with supervising it.
However, he said in reality there could be that element of inefficiency resulting from a number of factors which may not necessarily be motivated by corrupt practices but wrong decisions.
He said corruption can be tackled by increasing transparency and accountability in the decision making processes and limiting situations where excessive discretion, which often leads to impunity, are likely to prevail.
“Transparency and accountability in procurement can be enhanced by ensuring that decision making structures and authority levels are clearly defined, demarcated and adhered to in order to provide checks and balances,” he said.