Call for government to open procurement data to
public scrutiny
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By Hopolang Selebalo, Zukiswa Kota and Daniel McLaren for Imali Yethu• 14 June 2019
Caption
Stack of South African Rand. Photo: Adobe Stock
BUSINESS MAVERICK OP-ED
Call for government to open procurement data to
public scrutiny
By Hopolang Selebalo, Zukiswa Kota and Daniel McLaren for Imali Yethu• 14 June 2019
Caption
Stack of South African Rand. Photo: Adobe Stock
Public contracting is the meeting point of significant power and money and in most
countries, these systems are characterised by convoluted, opaque planning.
According to a recent report by the Open Contracting Partnership, up to 20% of
state procurement budgets for infrastructure may be wasted. Opening procurement
data will help support public participation and foster accountable governance.
In February 2018, the erstwhile Minister of Finance launched South Africa’s first national open budget data
portal, Vulekamali. This is an initiative between a coalition of civil society organisations known as Imali Yethu
(“Our Money”), and the National Treasury.
The online portal aims to create greater transparency around public budget processes, as well as enhance civic
participation. One of the key purposes for the development of this resource is to open up government
performance and procurement data and in turn deepen accountable governance. Vulekamali has the potential to
bring greater transparency to public procurement processes and to benefit both the public purse and service
delivery alike.
The significance of monitoring public procurement cannot be overstated – Transparency International estimates
that governments in African and other low to middle-income countries spend approximately 50% of public
funds on procuring goods and services. In high-income economies, this equates to 30%. It is no surprise,
therefore, that public procurement systems are highly vulnerable to corruption, leading to the mismanagement
of public funds and malfeasance.
In November last year, Auditor-General (AG) Kimi Makwetu released his 2017/18 consolidated general report
on government expenditure. The AG found that irregular expenditure by national and provincial departments, as
well as some state-owned entities (SoEs) amounted to approximately R51-billion. Irregular expenditure is
spending which does not comply with the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA). Some of the reasons behind
this exorbitant figure include non-compliance with procurement laws and unfair procurement practices.
It is for these reasons that the Imali Yethu coalition is advocating for the release of government procurement
information through Vulekamali. Organisations in the coalition have indicated how opaque procurement
processes hinder service delivery and damage trust in the public service. As Justice Johan Froneman succinctly
articulated in a 2013 Constitutional Court judgment against the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA),
“…it is because procurement so palpably implicates socio-economic rights that the public has an interest in it
being conducted in a fair, equitable, transparent, competitive, and cost-effective manner”.
According to the Open Contracting Partnership, open contracting relates to “…publishing and using open,
accessible, and timely information on government contracting to engage citizens and businesses in identifying
and fixing problems”. A significant component of this is ensuring that data users such as journalists, civic actors
and members of the public are included at every stage. In some countries, there is a growing emphasis on
gender-equitable procurement and contracting.
There is no time like the present for the South African government to chart a decisive path towards
implementing open contracting standards.
For some members of the coalition, such as Equal Education (EE), Equal Education Law Centre (EELC), the
Public Service Accountability Monitor (PSAM) and Section27, the slow pace of school infrastructure delivery in
provinces such as the Eastern Cape, has been of significant concern for several years.
In this case, school infrastructure delivery has been out-sourced to Implementing Agents (IAs) who act as
project managers for the government. While the key performance indicators of IAs are clear, civil society and the
public are unable to compare the actual work of IAs against them due to the lack of publicly available IA
performance information. This information is tracked in documents such as User-Asset Management Plans (UAMP). The U-AMP contains a project list with budget information for each school, but it is not released on the
Department of Education’s website. This makes it difficult for the public and for communities to track which
schools have been allocated to a particular IA. These documents should be made publicly available. Adopting
open contracting across all sectors and opening up procurement data by default is therefore crucial.
It is thus encouraging to note that the South African government has made clear commitments to addressing
this. With more than 70 countries having convened at the Sixth Open Government Partnership (OGP) Summit at
the end of May 2019 to review and renew innovations in open government – it is worth reflecting on South
Africa’s commitments (and actions) to tackle corrupt procurement to date.
At the launch of South Africa’s previous OGP National Action Plan, the erstwhile Deputy Minister of Public
Service and Administration, Ayanda Dlodlo, committed the government to implement open contracting
principles.
This would include, for instance, ensuring that tender bid evaluation meetings are open to scrutiny by any
member of the public. While there have been some noteworthy reforms in the country’s procurement landscape,
we are deeply concerned by what appears to be some loss in momentum and commitment on this front. The
establishment of the Office of the Chief Procurement Officer in 2013 as well the introduction of government’s etender portals and central supplier databases in 2015 constitute fundamental strides towards more transparent
government systems. However, it is clear that more can – and must – be done.
The accumulating evidence of the state capture project starkly illustrates how procurement processes that
should be geared towards enabling service delivery have allowed public representatives and private interests to
infiltrate state coffers for personal gain.
For instance, earlier this year it was reported that former Limpopo MEC of Education, Ishmael Kgetjepe had
allegedly been paid over R1-million by Mvula Trust for “…constituency work and various political work at the
branch level”. Mvula Trust was contracted through the Accelerated School Infrastructure Delivery Initiative
(ASIDI) to provide sanitation facilities at schools in Limpopo. It is stated that the funds, which were improperly
diverted to MEC Kgetjepe, could have built proper toilets for at least 17 schools in the province.
There is, clearly, an enormous amount at stake. Besides the very obvious benefits of tackling corruption and elite
state capture, openness has been shown to improve competitiveness and government efficiency, increase
investor confidence as well as value for money. Perhaps of even greater importance is the potential for
delivering higher quality services to all members of the public – particularly to those most dependent on public
services. There are promising lessons from comparable economies.
In Colombia, for instance, open contracting resulted in savings on school nutrition programmes. The
governments of Honduras and Malawi are implementing open contracting for public infrastructure projects –
increasing value for money. Increasingly, low to middle-income countries around the world are recognising the
value of transparency and are using open data to achieve this.
As a founding member of the OGP, there is no reason that South Africa should not heed the all-too-loud clarion
call to open up public contracting to safeguard public resources and deliver on the commitments made to all in
the National Development Plan. DM
Hopolang Selebalo works for Equal Education, Zukiswa Kota for the Public Service Accountability Monitor, and
Daniel McLaren for Section 27. Imali Yethu is a coalition of civil society organisations working with the South
African National Treasury to make budget information more accessible, user-friendly and empowering through the
collaborative development of an online budget data portal, www.vulekamali.gov.za
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