21 Mar 2022

Citizen-owned businesses should not be allowed to miss out on the commitment of the economic inclusion and the public procurement acts through unnecessary competition with foreign nationals’ companies.

That is a proposal the Kanye North MP, Mr Thapelo Letsholo brought before legislators recently, requesting Parliament to resolve that all government procurement tenders, funded by the 2022/2023 budget, be reserved for citizen-owned companies as per the recently passed Economic Inclusion Act and the Public Procurement Act.

He also requested that all government ministries and procurement entities be directed and obliged to report monthly to the Parliamentary Finance and Estimates Committee on all tenders that would be awarded pursuant to the 2022/2023 budget.

He said the entities should state  how they took the aforementioned legislation into consideration when awarding the tenders.  “The Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act has set out the requirements and conditions for reservations and preferential treatment of citizen contractors in public procurement.

The Economic Inclusion Act promotes effective participation of targeted citizens in the economic growth and development of the economy,” Mr Letsholo said.

He said he had realised that some government ministries and state-owned enterprises were in the process of rolling out lengthy supplies tenders without applying commitments of the two pieces of legislation.

That, he said, would have an irreversible effect of circumventing the laws because most of the contracts were two to four years long.

The legislator, therefore, called on government, through the motion or proposal, to speed up implementation of the two pieces of legislation.

“If things are allowed to proceed this way, then targeted citizens will only get to benefit from the next set of procurements after two, three or even four years,” he said.

For her part, Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Ms Peggy Serame welcomed the proposal.

Ms Serame agreed that allowing the signing of lengthy procurement contracts before the two laws effected would lead to circumvention of the laws.

Ms Serame said the ministry was at the final consultation process with stakeholders on specific regulations of the Public Procurement Act of 2021.

“The expectation is that we will  take the regulations back to the Attorney General soon,” she said.

She further said they were in the process of setting up new structures such as a tribunal, procuring units and turning the Public Procurement and Assets Disposal Board into an oversight agency, in order to make the law fully operational.

She further said her office was awaiting completion of a readiness assessment report for procuring entities, which was expected to be completed soon.

Other legislators who supported the proposal included MPs for Kgalagadi North, Gaborone Central and Gaborone North, Ms Talita Monnakgotla, Mr Tumisang Mangwegape-Healy and Mr Mpho Balopi respectively.

Ms Monnakgotla said the proposal would help many citizen-owned companies, particularly those in rural areas and were economically affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

She said she expected rural businesses to benefit through Constituency Community Projects tenders in their constituencies.

Mr Mangwegape-Healy said the proposal would assist in ensuring that Batswana owned the economy.

Mr Balopi said the issue of economic inclusion was a big challenge, adding it was, therefore, important to ensure that the economy ‘got into the hands of Batswana’ through effective participation in government procurement.

However, the proposal was opposed by Mahalapye West MP, Mr David Tshere.

He said the Constitution was clear that laws should be gazetted before being effected.

Mr Tshere, therefore, said the two pieces of legislation should be allowed to pass through all stages before being enacted.

Meanwhile, MPs were still in the process of voting for or against the proposal when Parliament adjourned on Friday. ENDS