Mmegi: In 2022 the government of Botswana amended the Public Procurement Act, a move which necessitated the evolution of the former Public Procurement Asset Disposal Board (PPADB) to the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA). What was the logic behind this change and what are the differences between the two entities’ operations?
Motsumi: Indeed amendments to the Procurement Act necessitated the birth of the PPRA as it is today. When the Authority operated as the PPADB, the board and the executive were not separated. The Authorities’ executives also served on the board and as a result there was no independent board from the executive.
The Act was enacted to ensure that the board is separated from the executive members of the Authority who are responsible for the day to day running of the institution. This is in line with international best practice and to make sure that we comply with outlined reporting standards set out for State Owned Enterprises.
Mmegi: The PPRA recently released its inaugural annual report. What are some of the highlights, successes and challenges, of the Authority since the transition?
Motsumi; The Authority has been busy on capacity building efforts to ensure that accounting officers, who are now charged with the chief role of awarding tenders, are aware of all due diligence processes.
As for challenges, the main one has been financial constraints. The operations that have to be carried out by the Authority require adequate recurrent spending such as the pressing need for the review of standardised bidding packages.
Mmegi: There have been perennial complaints about Batswana being side-lined from major public projects, sometimes through cartel behaviour, under-pricing by major entities and other illicit procurement practices. How is the PPRA handling these growing concerns?
Motsumi: The Procurement Act advocates for inclusivity in all procurement related practices. As the PPRA we similarly advocate for sustainable procurement. This entails procurement that is inclusive of all societal groups and pays attention to marginalised groups that may have been disadvantaged before in society.
As a first the Procurement Act provides for reservation of tenders for wholly-owned citizen companies. When citizen-owned companies are able to compete and deliver on projects with full competence, we ensure that such tenders are wholly reserved for able and competent citizen-owned companies.
This reservation policy is our way of fostering a dynamic, citizen centric model approach to procurement, one that focuses on empowering its citizens first as the main targets of economic empowerment.
Specialised groups of society as well are catered for under our Procurement Act. The youth for example purchase tender documents at half the price of the original price which is an economic relief for the youth to engage more in procurement. Tender assessment processes as well, allow for the youth to remain competitive when bids are assessed. For example youth bids are considered at a discount of 15% on the charged price making them competitive to bids from other groups.
Women, the disabled as well benefit from the same discount model during bid assessments.
Mmegi: Despite the Procurement Act tender reservation policy, there have been outcries that citizen-owned companies are overlooked in the procurement of high monetary value tenders. What is the Authority doing to alleviate this outcry?
Motsumi: Where Batswana companies are available and able to deliver projects, the Act necessitates that citizens be prioritised when bidding, but there are instances where local companies do not have the know-how or technical expertise to deliver on complex projects.
For example, the building of some bridges and other technical projects are above the ability of locally citizen-owned companies. In such cases the Act necessitates that companies operating within the jurisdiction or in Botswana that may not be fully citizen-owned companies be contracted for such a project. When there is no company in Botswana that can deliver on the project, then the Act allows for the procuring entity to search beyond the borders of the country.
For example there was a bid by Botswana Power Corporation where they wanted to procure power transformers and at first no citizen-owned was manufacturing the needed transformers by BPC. The tender was opened to other companies in the country and only a company that wasn’t citizen owned was manufacturing transformers. The entity however did not have other transformer sizes required by BPC. Our intervention as an entity was to facilitate for the BPC to procure the sizes that the local company could offer and go outside the country for sizes that could not be satisfied locally.
Mmegi: The new Procurement Act gives accounting officers at different government departments the ability to award tenders of all financial magnitude. This has raised fears of corruption that may arise from collusion and other malpractices. What is the Authority doing to address these concerns?
Motsumi: Procurement officers all over the country submit procuring plans to the Authority. This is the first check post of the procurement supervision process. We ensure that intentions to procure are in alignment with what is truly needed.
We also analyse tender notices to ensure compliance with the Procurement Act. We carry out a series of compliance assessments in various procurement departments to ensure full compliance to the Procurement Act.
